Star Of The West
by schillingklaus
Summary: Jade West uses her magical star tattoo in order to force demons to help her to become the world's leading top model, but does she really know what she is doing? For Emeralddusk's Jade challenge.
1. Introduction

**Chapter 1 Introduction**

* * *

><p><strong><span>1:1 Epigraph<span>**

**_"_**  
>"Take, O Solomon, king, son of David, the gift which the Lord God has sent thee, the highest Sabaoth. With it thou shalt lock up all demons of the earth, male and female; and with their help thou shalt build up Jerusalem. [But] thou [must] wear this seal of God. And this engraving of the seal of the ring sent thee is a Pentalpha."<br>**_"_**

—from _Testament Of Solomon_

* * *

><p><strong><span>1:2 Prologue<span>**

Dear Gentle Reader,

this author assumes you to be somewhat familiar with various real action shows of the popular broadcasting network**Nickelodeon**, especially the—fancily so-called—**Schneiderverse** (the works of indispensable **Daniel Schneider**, the master of low-mimetic comedy).

Unfortunately, Schneider is blatantly careless and ignorant when it comes to sacred symbols, whose presence in his shows is almost always mindless and degenerate; for nothing—or so the reader should remember—is more dangerous than the infantile secular abuse of sacred symbols and their hidden power; which, as will be seen below, leads inevitably to madness and paranoia.

The example chosen hereupon is—following a suggestion by fellow fanfiction author **EmeraldDusk**—the case of **Jade West**, the renowned goth girl and dark cultist from **Victorious**. Since the completion of his masterpiece _Zoey 101_, Dan Schneider has been unable to maintain any sense of continuity in his works; this is especially valid for _Victorious_, which is consequently understood as a sequence of dreams by **Dolores Martinez**. This person is known to most readers as **Lola** from _Zoey 101_, but one of her—numerous!—dream identities is **Victoria Vega**, the shining star of _Victorious_.

The identification of the canon of _Victorious_ as a dream does by no means invalidate the characters and ideas of the show; but it expresses Lola's both existential fears of the Jade West and her hidden fascination with that uncanny person.

Now **EmeraldDusk**, our venerable fellow fanfiction poetess, has urged the pundits of the **Schneiderverse** to create a dark work centred on Jade West—for her _Killing Daddy_ fanfiction.

Given that our main canon witness about the life and work of young Jade West is Dolores Martinez, the reader will first have to analyse and comprehend the impression Jade has made on that drama queen; for that avail, let us recall that, when Lola was new at Pacific Coast Academy—as reported in the episode _Back At PCA_—she tried to fool her new room comrades, videlicet Miss Perfect **Zoë Brooks** and obsessively hysterical **Nicole Bristow**, into believing that she was an uncanny goth girl, able to talk to the dead. The bluff is called late in that episode, whereupon Lola is never ever again associated with the dark, because she is quite the contrary of gloomy Jade. By acting in the manners of Jade West, Lola Martinez had not only tried to fool her new room comrades, but also tried to overcompensate for her fears of Jade.

There are not many uncanny episodes of _Zoey 101_, but those few are quite telling. The reader familiar with the episode _Haunted House_ will probably know that Lola was absent—the only episode since her arrival she ever skipped, and without even a trace of an explanation! This, dear gentle reader, is by absolutely no means a coincidence, but very essential. Nobody shall be surprised that Halloween, the day of the borderline between the apparent cosmos of the living and the—usually hidden—chaotic realms of the dead, was the outstanding annual event for Jade West, the mistress of the dark atmosphere; whence Jade West should be considered as the very embodiment of the spirit of Halloween.

Next, recall the episode **The Curse Of PCA**, arguably the darkest episode ever created by Daniel Schneider; therein, Lola participated in a field trip to **Redstone Gulch** with her friends, whereupon the adolescent students upset the tomb of mysteriously vanished **Charles Galloway**, thus incurring an event comparable to the mythic wild hunt.

There is no way to deny that Dolores Martinez must have thereby been made to remember her former gloomy acquaintance Jade West; as a consequence, the Latino drama queen did not concentrate on the same thing as her close friends, but she stood slightly apart of them, concentrating on courting hysterical **Lafe** instead of trying to save the school, as her standard companions did.

The reader should—as an ultimate consequence—not be surprised upon learning that Lola Martinez had avoided talking about Jade even to her—falsely so-called—best friends Zoë, Nicole, and mad scientist **Quinn Pensky**. Many things had she done in order to marginalise and to eradicate her memories of Jade, either by parody or by evasion; alas, little did she know that Jade West would not only haunt her in her dreams, but also throughout her life.

This particular story aims for providing the inquisitive reader with answers to questions about Jade West's and Dolores Martinez' common experiences had been like, about Jade's life during the times of the separation from Lola, and about the reunion of those girls after the end of the canon of _Zoey 101_.

* * *

><p><strong><span>1:3 Supermodel Heather Fox<span>**

Often enough, the girls of Pacific Coast Academy sat together in the lounge of their residence hall in order to watch television shows, including commercial advertisements. Like many modern watchers, they did not care much about those breaks, but they had to tolerate them. On the other hand, many of the female students were interested in fashion and cosmetics, whence Zoë Brooks and her friends directed their attention to the advertisement of those products. This was even more the case as some of them exhibited skills in fashion design (such as Zoey) or in cosmetic styling (such as Nicole). Even cerebral narcissist Quinn Pensky had been corrupted by her shallow-minded room comrades into indulging in vain and vile activities such as pedicure, as sen in the episode _Drippin' Episode_.

New products of cosmetics and fashion were usually presented by so-called supermodels, attractive-looking young women, or sometimes men, hired for that purpose by the marketing agencies in charge.

One of those girls was **Heather Fox**, known from _Big Time Rush_ episode _Big Time Secrets_; and so many products owe their popularity to her efforts, notwithstanding her young age. Little surprisingly, Heather was extremely well-paid for a girl of fifteen years.

Nicole Bristow used to feel the irresistible cheer fanatically during the advertisements starring Heather; this usually culminated in high-toned squeals that penetrated the whole campus, and it annoyed many students and staff members. **Dana Cruz**, whom some readers remember from the first season of _Zoey 101_, often had to menace Nicole in an excruciatingly rude manner in order to get her to remain silent. Although Dana had left Pacific Coast Academy before the arrival of Lola, the latter had been informed by Zoey about the frequent conflicts between said girls; as a consequence, a lot of Jade's daily rudeness in Lola's nightmares owes to the stories about Dana Cruz circulating on the campus, which had been even exaggerated in Nicole's and Zoey's memories.

Many boys were hankering after Heather, including **Chase Matthews** and **Michael Barret**, two of the most well-known male figures from the show. Those boys, however, refused to admit to this in the presence of the resident girls, especially of those they were coveting even more.

Dolores Martinez, on the other hand, tried hard to ignore those commercials; this, considering her obsession with beauty, was rather surprising, and she was even sometimes asked by Quinn and Zoey for her reasons. Whenever that happened, Lola came up with excuses, saying that she already had access to better products; this was usually not wrong, but Lola could—or so we should suppose—never get enough of glamour and beauty. After all, Lola had sometimes starred in commercials as well, just as many other attractive Hollywood starlets. Zoey noticed that Lola's lack of interest in Heather's commercial presentations was faked, but she refrained from looking for a deeper reason; instead, she assumed that Lola was exhibiting some kind of professional envy, which was not uncommon among actresses and models. Nicole Bristow, on the other hand, was way too ingenuous for noticing that there was something wrong, and so she never even tried to understand Lola's reasons.

Some readers will wonder what all of this has to do with the subject of our story, Jade West; whereas others already imagine where the whole thing is going to. But let us refrain, for the time being, from spoiling it for the former kind of reader.

* * *

><p><strong><span>1:4 A Shooting Day<span>**

We will leave the well-guarded (in a symbolic sense!) gates of Pacific Coast Academy behind us and follow Heather Fox for some day of her teenage life. It doesn't matter exactly when this all occurred, for days like this were fairly abundant.

Los Angeles, the restless city which promised great dreams but—in most cases—delivered hard disappointments, was one of the world's places with the hugest demand for beauty products, especially due to Hollywood; whence Heather was forced to attend many shootings in that area, at least thrice a week. Needless to say, her schedule was tight and demanding; that notwithstanding, she had got—or so it seemed—no problems to deliver her smiles that sold for millions.

The director of this particular shooting was **Dale Squires**, a teenager himself whom some of the readers recognise from the _Victorious_ episode _A Film By Dale Squires_, but who is also known as **Pete** in _Zoey 101_, episode _Michael Loves Lisa_; alas, this guy was at the same time charming and ruthless, as he was aspiring to win several Oscars as a director. By his attitude, many workers on the set were misguided into working harder than usual, little aware of the fact that they were properly just doing the dirty work for Dale.

Heather was occasionally the target of Dale's courting attempts, but she did not really care about that, as she was already coveted by too many other teenage boys. On the one hand, she enjoyed deeply standing in the centre of the attention of those guys, on the other hand, Heather did have something which seemed to be a long-term boyfriend: **Beck Oliver**, certainly known unto all of you known from the canon of _Victorious_, where he entertains a perverse and degrading long-term affair with Jade West. **Jessica Warner**, whom a few of you will remember as a Hollywood star reporter from various cameos throughout _The iCarly Show_, commented that Beck, who had entered the business upon Heather's recommendation, was the very source of her brilliant—albeit still natural-looking—smile; she was seconded by many observers of the Hollywood scene, both fans and critical outsiders. If only they had known what they were talking about ...

Once more, Dale Squire was not quite content with the day's duty, because they were already quite a few days late. This was —as the critical observer knew—due to the fact that he was not actually doing anything, but just shouted at the ingenuous crew. As a consequence, some members of the set were once again close to collapsing from the mental burden; that notwithstanding, Heather Fox was still perfectly able to keep on smiling.

The buffet break seemed to appease a few members of the set, but this was only superficial; whereas, deep in side, the grudge against the increasing pressure grew steadily—except in Heather, who did not feel a lot of it. During the break, her suitor Beck joined the set, as he was needed for the second part of the session; this event made Heather smile enough for even the most burdened members of the set to forget their mental pains, and to keep on working instead. The buffet was sponsored by **Blix**, the greatest vendor of soft-drinks along the whole Pacific coast. The reader will sure remember many of their products mentioned throughout _The iCarly Show_ and _Zoey 101_, and he will not be surprised upon learning that Heather participated frequently in commercial advertisements for the products offered by the soft-drink giant, who was also a member of the board of sponsors of pacific Coast Academy. Most of Heather's luxury life was thus financed by this monumental company, presided by one **Lemon Blix**, another very charismatic yet work-shy young entrepreneur. Heather was occasionally invited to Lemon's semi-private parties, along with Beck; this—obviously—even increased her general popularity and position in the model business. Even for this shooting, Lemon was expected on the site, but she was late; this was not quite unexpected, but rather _business as usual_.

The break was over, and Lemon had arrived, when Dale urged the staff to work even harder; as usual, barely anyone was able to contradict, both for fear of penalties, and for being still thoroughly hypnotised by Heather's penetrating smile and her natural beauty. This way, another day on the set was going to await its completion, filling the purse of Heather more and more.

* * *

><p><strong><span>1:5 In The Office Of Wilma Bassett<span>**

So the shooting was over, and Heather Fox was on her way to her advocate in order to—or so it was believed officially—take a look at the contracts for her incoming jobs as a top model. It was not easy for a busy young person to oversee the legal aspects of her business, whence consulting a competent professional was in order.

So let us now enter the office of **Wilma Bassett**, the lawyer responsible for Heather's business contracts. Some readers will recognise her as one of the recurring characters from **Wendell And Vinnie**, another show by Nickelodeon, and those will wonder why she was responsible for Heather's contracts; indeed, Wilma was properly a personal injury attorney, but there were a few exceptions.

Due to the requirements of her job, Wilma was often visiting her customers in health centres and hospitals; whence she had employed a few interns in order to take care of other customers during her absence. The office walls were decorated by a huge amount of diplomas and awards for Wilma's career; this impressed many clients and visitors of the office, but not so much Heather Fox, who knew more about Wilma than expressed by the certificates.

**Claire Sawyer**, well-known unto many readers from her recurring presence in _Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide_, another show by Nickelodeon, was one of those interns, and a very ambitious one indeed; for, notwithstanding her young age, she was already very well-versed in all kinds of law existing on planet earth. At her high-school, she was responsible for the honour council; on the other hand, she was now gathering a lot of experience in different branches of the lawyer's business. She had studied Heather's case thoroughly, and she kept on asking her to show up on one of her high-school's festivities; for, as expected, many students over there were blazing fans of the popular top model.

Heather felt flattered by her popularity, but she had to decline the request because of her over-tight schedule; further, she needed to hurry up.

Claire showed Heather the prepared contracts, an she explained a variety of clauses; in doing so, the future lawyer was not taking into account that normal mortals were not able to follow her talk as fast as necessary. But, after all, it was just a standard contract. Of course, Heather would have to get her mother to sign it, but there were no really tricky clauses.

Nevertheless, Heather insisted in seeing Wilma Bassett in person before showing the new contract unto her mother; this was not easy to understand for Claire, but the request was—albeit grudgingly—granted. Heather would just have to wait until Wilma's return, which was expected for the early night time.

Unlike most other clients of the lawyer, Heather had not got any objection to such a late appointment, no, she appeared rather pleased; this was hard to understand for Claire, but she refrained from digging for the reasons. Heather was looking forward for the post-crepuscular meeting in the lawyer's office.

* * *

><p><strong><span>1:6 Lawyer By Day—Witch By Night<span>**

Past sunset, Heather Fox reentered the office rooms of Miss Bassett, ready to meet the lawyer in person. It was a plenilunar night, and sensitive ears were already capable of hearing the creatures of the dark howl in the distance.

Wilma had just arrived and accommodated herself next to her desk in order to study the notes left by busy Claire Sawyer; thereupon, she could not help praising the young intern's ardent endeavour. Upon reading the notes, she had already anticipated the arrival of Miss Fox; further, she knew—notwithstanding Claire's ignorance—very well that the reason for the top model's nocturnal visit was not a standard contract. Upon exchanging formal policies, Heather had to relax in a settle by the window, where her face was bathed in the cold and silvery light of the earth's most faithful satellite; while sitting down, the starlet pushed back her sleeves, revealing a nice star-shaped tattoo known as the pentagram. The regular watcher of _Victorious_ certainly remember the presence of this holy symbol on one of the arms of Jade West. By now, most readers will have guessed it: Sweet supermodel Heather Fox is no other than brash goth girl Jade West! Wilma, on the other hand, was very well aware of that double identity.

It is hard to see how both personalities are accommodated in one and the same person, and we will have to address this later down the road.

Heather explained now why she was really here: During the day, she had to bear a lot of pressure from the hands of Dale Squires and other members of the set; this way, her—in the eyes of the ignorant watcher—apparently unlimited patience was almost exhausted. But now the reader will wonder why Wilma Bassett, a well-established lawyer, was the one person whose assistance Jade needed in such a situation. The answer was simply that Wilma was leading a double-life: While she passed as the perfect lawyer by daylight, she practised and served as a witch during the dark hours; in addition, she had got an artist's name for her second existence: **Kreuftlva**, as which she is possibly known to some readers from the episode _True Fear_ of Nickelodeon's _True Jackson VP_.

Many stars of the Hollywood scene were known for consulting soothsayers, augurs, and oracles for one reason of the other; thence Heather was not an exception; nevertheless, Heather was more than the average celebrity visiting a soothsayer. Now she requested a repetition of something she referred to as _the ritual_. This implies that it was not her first time, nor would it be her last visit at Kreuftlva's for that purpose. More precisely, the secret force of Heather's ability to withstand the daily pressure of her craft as a top model was some repeated dark procedure performed under the auspices of Wilma Bassett alias Kreuftlva. The goal of the ritual was that of conjuring and beguiling demons that gave her the power to continue her increasingly demanding life as a supermodel.

The witch acted reluctantly, but she could not risk declining Heather's request, for she needed to keep her double-life as secret as the star model needed to do with hers; nevertheless, she kept on warning Heather about the possibilities of failure in the case of exceeding her own capacity of being able to handle the unclean demons she had called forth. Heather believed honestly that the pentagram etched into the skin of her limbs was enough to protect her from any more or less obnoxious side effects of the commerce with demons and undead creatures; therein she felt confirmed week after week, after she had been convincingly and triumphantly accomplished her contractual obligations as a star model. Kreuftlva's warnings were in vain, and she she had to conjure again a stunningly beautiful yet utterly corrupt demon serving as Heather's consort and—according to Heather's belief—loyal servant for the promotion of her career: Beck Oliver!

But how had Heather Fox' double life been effected, and what will be its long-term consequences? These are the questions to be answered during the following chapters.

* * *

><p><strong><span>1:7 The Pentagram<span>**

As already stated, the tattoo of Jade West alias Heather Fox is a pentagram, one of the most frequently deployed sacred geometrical symbol throughout the history of mankind, such as the **Seal Of Solomon**. While this is a thoroughly complicated history, let us recapitulate a few cornerstones.

The most basic view to understand the cusps of the symbol is that of seeing it as a representation of the four elements (**fire**, **water**, **earth**, **air**) and the so-called **quintessence**. It is the letter that needs to be made control the elements, lest havoc and corruption will be inevitable.

A related symbolism is the equation of the pentagram with the five stigmata of the Christ, for the latter's mission is that of redeeming mankind from the domain of the elemental demons and guiding it to the quintessential realms.

By invoking the analogy of **King Solomon**, the legendary constructor of the epic **Temple of Zion**, we want to state that Heather Fox was trying to construct her career as a star model by means of commerce with the elemental demons as her servants. But does she control the demons, or does she get controlled by them, that is the question.

Previously quoted _Testament Of Solomon_ describes that the legendary King Of Jerusalem had not been up to handling the demons he had used for his goals, whence he had been fooled by the unclean creatures. The testament itself is meant to serve as a warning for mankind, and it is to be asked whether Heather alias Jade needs to listen to the warnings, or whether she can safely ignore it.

**Alphonse Louis Constant** alias **Éliphas Lévi**, explained the significance of the sacred pentagram in his monumental work _Transcendental Magic_:

**_"_**  
>The Pentagram expresses the mind's domination over the elements and it is by this sign that we bind the demons of the air, the spirits of fire, the spectres of water, and the ghosts of earth. It is the Star of the Magi, the burning star of the Gnostic schools, the sign of intellectual omnipotence and autocracy. Its complete comprehension is the key of two worlds—it is absolute natural philosophy and natural science. Its use, however, is most dangerous to operators who do not completely and perfectly understand it. All mysteries of magic, all symbols of the gnosis, all figures of occultism, all Qabalistic keys of prophecy, are resumed in the sign of the Pentagram, which Paracelsus proclaims to be the greatest and most potent of all.<br>**_"_**

Said **Paracelsus**, properly **Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim**, was one of the leading leading mystic scholars during the years of the Renaissance.

These words already contain the base of the repeated warning that are issued by Kreuftlva into the face of Heather Fox. Was the star model really able to comprehend—in the sense of Constant—the symbol of the pentagram? The reader shall see!


	2. The Early Common Past Of Dolores And Hea

**Chapter 2 The Early Common Past Of Dolores And Heather**

* * *

><p><strong><span>2:1 Broadway Academy Of The Performance Arts<span>**

Let the reader remember once more what Lola had told Zoey and Nicole while still feigning to be a goth: Among other things, she claimed that she had been at a boarding school in Upstate New York. While she was behaving out of her character, she was not lying about her former school.

It is thus the right moment for introduce the school where Dolores Martinez spent her years of middle-school: **Broadway Academy Of The Performance Arts**, a boarding school outside the metropolitan area of New York City which—just as suggested by the name—prepared for a career at the **Broadway**, the world's theatre of supreme renown and quality.

Many readers will be aware of the high estate costs in New York City, especially the Borg of Manhattan; whence few will be surprised by the fact that, in order to save quite a few costs, the consortium responsible for the construction of the boarding school had been compelled to move outside the gates of the Metropolitan area. For some students that was a bit disappointing, as they expected to be in a city that never sleeps; yet most of them got accommodated pretty fast, barring a few exceptions ...

**Hollywood Arts**, the setting of the canon of _Victorious_and thus of a huge amount of Dolores Martinez' dreams, is very much inspired by this preparatory school for future entertainers; for example, We are going to encounter some of the teachers and staff members that made it into Dolores's dreams.

**Erwin Sikowitz** was one of the most popular teachers for acting at Broadway Academy, and his part was about the same as the canonical Sikowitz in _Victorious_, although he was less crazy in Dolores' life than in her dreams; in addition, Sikowitz was also an assistant director at one of the theatres of the Broadway—albeit not the most famous one. After all, being a director for stage plays, even when the stage is part of the Broadway, will hardly ever get the recognition of a director working for a famous motion picture company, such as **Metro Goldwyn-Mayer**. Unlike the canonical Sikowitz, our version was—at least in the very beginning—still fully hairy; in addition, he had developed many teaching techniques for apprentice actors, some of which will be seen later on.

The leading teacher for choreography was **Lane Alexander**, known from recurring appearances throughout _Victorious_. But he is also known as **Ernie** from _The iCarly Show_'s episode _iWas A Pageant Girl_, where he helped the show's co-star **Samantha Puckett** to win some pageant. The reader needs to know that _The iCarly Show_ is also nothing but a dream, and many of its episodes are but a dream within a dream. Once more, this does not mean that the content is irrelevant to anything narrated in here—quite the contrary! Yet the details will be saved for a later point, once we stumble upon the person whose dream it was. So let us return to Lane Alexander, responsible for the choreography of quite a few Broadway musicals; whence his experience was exorbitantly valuable for the young students at the academy, some of them interested in picking up a career as a musical dancer, preferably in the sacred halls of the Broadway. Like Sikowitz, he lacked the fame of equivalent professionals working for Hollywood's big five. But unlike Sikowitz, Lane Alexander never had got the ambition to do the step across the continent.

**Sofia Michelle**, whom some of the readers remember from her cameo in the episode _Tori The Zombie_, was also working as a teacher for English Literature at the academy. She was not only successful at the Broadway, but also occasionally exported to Hollywood, although she was almost unknown there to the greater public because the moving picture adaptations were provided by Hollywood's screenwriters. Sofia knew a lot about the collected works of **William Shakespeare**, one of the most celebrated playwrights throughout the history of literature, and she liked talking about these plays in her classes,with a huge impact on some students—as shall be seen.

Next we come to some teacher that you would not associate with theatre: **André Chaumont**, known to some of the readers from the _Zoey 101_'s episode _Haunted House_, but really the same as the _dream-dad_ of Dolores Martinez, alias **David Alejandro Vega**. A few very smart readers will also recognise the same person as **Mario**, the assistant baker from _The iCarly Show_'s _iPie_. According to the previously mentioned episode of _Zoey 101_, was conducting some a French boarding school. This is correct, but said boarding school was the French film academy in Paris, and André served as a guest teacher. The same was valid for his wife **Monique Chaumont**, who showed up in the same episode. Both of them were also teaching French literature during their time at the Broadway; whence Tori, the dream-self of Dolores, believes to be partly French ancestry and to be predestined for playing a French instrument in some early episodes of _Victorious_. But there is a reason why the dream-dad is a policemen: André and Monique were known—at least in France and among their students at Broadway Academy For Performance Arts —as the stars of a comedy show about French policemen. They spoke of course a much better English than demonstrated in _Haunted House_, but they had been acting ignorant; the latter would not be hard for a professional actor, and this would happen due to a bet with no other than Dolores Martinez, who would hide from them during the whole episode. We will later have to see more about this incident.

**Jenna Lotrell** was a renowned actress appearing both on the stages of the Broadway and the screens of Hollywood, but she was also a rare guest during the classes of Sikowitz, where she shared her experiences as an actress; she is probably known to some readers from the episode _The Green Carpet_ of Nickelodeon's _True Jackson VP_, where she demonstrates her ability of reading the spectral aura of people. The reader will guess that, notwithstanding her rare occurrences in the halls of the academy, Jenna would exercise some influence on Jade; just wait and see!

* * *

><p><strong><span>2:2 Welcome To Broadway Academy<span>**

It was a bright late summer day when the students arrived for the new year at Broadway Academy For Performance Arts, but the nice weather was misleading ...

Heather Fox was one of the first students, and she had got a hard time separating form her parents. Little later, those would separate and get a divorce, but this was yet unbeknown to that middle-school pupil. Sending their kids to a boarding school was a standard way for hiding family problems from them; this was also valid for the students of Pacific Coast Academy. The reader remembering _Sleepover At Sikowitz_ are probably aware how Tori forces Jade to act as an innocent and infinitely patient country peach; this, the reader should know, is not Dolores' sick fantasy, but it describes how Heather Fox had been back at the beginning of middle-school; and this is how everyone would remember her for the years to come. So, what had made Heather Fox come to this academy established for the sake of the aspiring stars of the big stage?

Heather's elementary school teacher had suggested her for a regional award, for she had been successfully and convincingly performed as the author, director, and one of the actors of a recent school play at said village school, but the responsible committee had decided that the young artist deserved a lot more; whereupon, after some discussions, the board of Broadway Art had decided to offer her a fellowship.

As correctly expressed by Dan Schneider in _Wok Star_, Heather's alias Jade's father was not keen on the business of entertainment; more precisely, he deemed it impractical and insecure. Little surprise, her proud and hyperactive mother was the driving force in accepting the offer, and she had found support from her own family. Finally, Heather's father had consented, not because he saw anything good in the show business, but because he saw this as the only chance to get rid of his daughter, in the sense of keeping her out of the impending family troubles and the resulting divorce war. For Heather, it was still just an exciting move in order to find new friends and acquaintances; and, by no means, did she even think about a career as an entertainer or model. It should be noted that, notwithstanding her rural origins, Heather preferred speak and write following the lines of the official language.

The rooms at the academy were much smaller and less colourful than at Pacific Coast Academy, for the latter was really one of its kind; on the other hand, many of the dormitory rooms were occupied with two students each, barring those for the elementary school kids, who had bigger rooms for six students.

For Heather, sharing a room was not new, because at home, she had done so with her younger brother; but this had been occasionally somewhat annoying for, and she hoped that sharing a room with a girl of her age. And this dormitory comrade would be no other than Dolores Martinez, about whom she had not yet heard anything.

The attractive Latino girl had just arrived on the campus and reached her room, where she was stumbling upon Heather; had she not been clueless about all the troublesome events to come, she would have been scared to no end. But, for the time being, she accepted Heather just as the nice girl as which the latter appeared. Dolores was from a colony of Puerto-Rican migrants, similar in spirits to those described by **Leonard Bernstein** and **Stephen Sondheim** in their renowned musical _West Side Story_. She was obsessed with theatre, and especially with English theatre; which was very surprising, as a few generations ago, the members of her family had unable to speak English fluently, and they had never learned to read and to write even in their Spanish mother tongue. Although she had also got some Irish ancestry, Dolores' family was still predominantly Hispanophone and little familiar with the traditions of British culture.

The school was directed by **Principle Deanne**, whom most readers know as the dream-mother of Dolores alias Tori Vega. Although she exercised quite some authority, her decisions were never really wise, and she should have been accused of neglecting her official duties. This is certainly reflected to quite some degree in _Victorious_, where Tori's mother leaves Tori often enough without a breakfast. (cf. _Driving Tori Crazy_!)

Summing it up, both Dolores and Heather arrived on the site as unusually gifted promises for a big career at the Broadway; that notwithstanding, nobody at the academy knew what could become of them.

* * *

><p><strong><span>2:3 Hong Kong Palace<span>**

Of course the students also needed to eat and drink, whence the boarding school was equipped with some kind of restaurant. It was a branch of **Hong Kong Palace**, a chain of Chinese restaurants featured in _Unfabulous_, another great show by Nickelodeon; and it was managed by **Mrs. Lee**, a mid-aged woman known from various episodes throughout _Victorious_. This campus pub contained a wall of fame, where pictures of many (usually famous) alumni of the academy were displayed — a practice is mirrored in _Wok Star_, as much as most of her character. She used to backtalk the customers, and she took unfair advantage of their lack of experience.

Most of the students were not aware of the inappropriate demeanour of Mrs. Lee, but some of them had figured a few hints; thence, they would turn increasingly suspicious and fear the owner of the restaurant more than any monster in a horror novel by contemporary star novelist **Stephen King**.

But for most pupils, the prospects of making it to the wall of fame outweighed—at least for the time being—the fears of being abused and cheated by the manager of the Chinese pub.

* * *

><p><strong><span>2:4 The Psychopathic Dormitory Adviser And Her Nice Niece<span>**

Regular watchers of _Zoey 101_ certainly remember **Coco Wexler**, the careless and undisciplined dormitory adviser of the girls of Pacific Coast Academy, who caused quite a few troublesome adventures for the students. As expected, there was also a dormitory adviser at BroadWay Academy, and many readers know her already, albeit not as such: **Marissa Benson**, the terrible regular character of _The iCarly Show_. It is not hard for you to imagine that such a control-obsessed person was very hard to bear for the girls at this boarding school—just imagine her obsession with forcing the students to take regular tick baths!

**Fredward Benson**, Marissa's son according to the canon of _The iCarly Show_, is however just a figment of the imagination of the dreamer behind _The iCarly Show_, albeit based on **Prince Gabriel**, known to some readers from an episode of _True Jackson VP_ (_True Royalty_). The dreamer would just imagine a person as well-guarded as said prince, but in a less luxurious environment. It is most obvious that, if she had ever had a husband, the poor fellow would have run away or died from her terror by now.

Marissa had got no proper children, but she was some sort of a substitute mother for **Amanda Benson**, the daughter of Marissa's only-educating brother, who lacked any self-esteem. This girl is known to some readers from _Swindle_, a minor production by Nickelodeon; in addition, she is the prototype for **Caítlin Valentine** alias Cat, the simple-minded canonical character of _Victorious_. Indeed, Dolores' dream would infuse Amanda with the personality of Nicole Bristow in order to emphasise the contrast with Jade; whereas Amanda was infinitely much smarter than Cat, and also very dexterous. She was not a student at Broadway Academy For Performance Arts, but she was often hanging out on the campus in order to visit and assist her controlling aunt in her daily chores; for that reason, she was often enjoying the company of the female (and sometimes also the male) students on the sacred grounds of the boarding school, including Dolores and Heather. In some sense, they would become friends, but her rare presence and her obligations limited their time to be spent together.

Amanda participated in the training of the cheerleaders of the academy, because she was very nimble, and she had got the ability of memorising complicated pattern of motion with ease. The school had not got any great team to cheer for, but the academy's expertise in choreography was perfect for training these girls, who were regularly hired by other schools and community teams for their events. Amanda was not allowed to stand on the top of the cheerleaders' pyramid, although she deserved to do so; this restriction was naturally due to Marissa's objection, who feared for her niece's safety.

With or without Amanda's sweetness, the girls lived with the permanent fear of the oppression by the rude hands of Marissa Benson, and for some of them, this would not go well ...

* * *

><p><strong><span>2:5 The First Weeks At The Boarding School<span>**

It would be exaggerated to say that the life of Heather and Dolores, sharing that dormitory room, was utterly harmonic and devoid of friction; nevertheless, all troubles were transitory and easy-to-fix. In so far, there was no comparison to the canonical troubles between Jade and Tori that penetrated especially the first season of the canon of _Victorious_.

Granted, some times either of them wanted to show that they were better, but the teachers made it clear that there was little connection between future success and the abilities exhibited in all the hypothetical exercises the students had to go through.

The classes were not too much different from the schedules the readers know from the canon; as a consequence, they included a balanced mixture of general education and theatre-specific subjects. Dolores' bilingual history was very useful in learning foreign languages, whence she would serve as a tutor later on. On the other hand, she would prefer to hide her knowledge by means of acting less intelligent, because she knew that boys would pity her, and thereupon be more likely to do her (often incredibly subtle) bidding, than in the case of facing a cerebral monster of the league of Quinn Pensky. Heather, on the other hand, did not have such a background, but she was not really lagging behind in the general subjects.

The classes of André Chaumont would be most interesting for about all students, because none of them had been hitherto familiar with French culture and history. Two French novels were paramount in the classes taught by the French visitors: _Les Misérables_ by **Victor Hugo**, and _Séraphita_ by **Honoré de Balzac**. Little did Chaumont know what he was doing, videlicet: He was ignorant of any connection between previously mentioned Alphonse Louis Constant, and either of the French classic writers. Instead, the French actor and teacher pointed out the value of these works as examples of social satire, a tradition he saw also incorporated into contemporary French theatre and motion pictures, including aforementioned film about the contemporary police of Paris.

During those months, neither Heather nor Dolores were seeing beyond the superficial impressions promoted by Chaumont, but the situation would change.

The most influential classes, however, were those taught by Erwin Sikowitz, as they comprised a variety of methods for future actors. Some methods are not unknown to the watchers of _Victorious_, as they appear in Dolores' dreams. We recall **Method acting**, which involves staying in your rôle even off the stage, as demonstrated in _Sleepover At Sikowitz_. This used to be a lot of fun for everyone, enjoyed equally by Dolores and Heather. But at some points, the two room comrades had to start living apart.

For now, their common spite for the terror rule of Marissa Benson appeared to make them to work together just nicely, but this was not something to be relied on for good.

* * *

><p><strong><span>2:6 Hypnosis<span>**

In _Broadcast Views_, we learn that Lola's former teacher for acting, who is kept a secret in the episode, had used the techniques of hypnosis in order to prepare the aspiring actors for a life of the stage and in front of the camera. This teacher was no other than our Erwin Sikowitz, and he used his coconuts, famous from throughout _Victorious_, for the purpose of mesmerising himself and the pupils for their rôles.

The expression _mesmerising_ is named for **Franz Mesmer**, a physician from the era of enlightenment, is generally considered as the pioneer of the scientific use of hypnotising techniques. His theory, **Animal magnetism**, was yet very crude and primitive; thence the later scientific explanations had to go a long way from Mesmer's attempts.

Hypnosis had been practised, long before its scientific research, by a variety of cults throughout the world, especially the far east.

But even underground, the ancient and reliable spiritual theories about hypnosis had kept on blossoming, especially due to the works of one **George Gurdjieff**, an Armenian who could be considered, at least to some extent, as standing in the tradition of previously mentioned Éliphas Lévi. Both of them indulged in the ancient and venerable theory of the **astral body**, which has been carelessly ignored and ridiculed by the official sciences. Only a few fringe scientists, such as genius **Rupert Sheldrake**, had found the courage to approaching once more the path of the ancient perennial truths.

Sikowitz himself had neither got the intelligence to study the contemporary scientific theories about hypnotism, nor the courage and the dedication to follow any spiritual path that is outlawed and ridiculed by a decadent modern society; as a result, he kept on stalking the terrains for whose exploration he had not got any sufficient competence.

The students had got a lot of fun while hypnotising each other (and finally themselves) for the purpose of temporarily improving their abilities of concentrating on the röle they were supposed to act, but they did not—at least in general—understand what Sikowitz was doing, and what would be the potential dangers for their future life and career; quite the contrary, they welcomed it both as a fun game, and as a way to reduce the efforts for their acting training.

* * *

><p><strong><span>2:7 Heather Starts Posing For Commercial Advertising<span>**

You know that Heather Fox would be a future top model, but it is not yet clear for you how it started except that Heather had not had any ambitions at the start of her life in New York.

Many young actors (and even more actresses) start building up their publicity by acting for commercial advertising, as there was some overlap between the qualities needed by an actor and those needed by a model; one of those prerequisites was certainly the lack of the fear of feeling watched. The lessons from Erwin Sikowitz were serving the purpose of losing this fear, whence more and more students expected, beyond any trace of a doubt, an unencumbered performance in front of the masses. Little did they know that the manipulation of their astral essence would—at least for some of them—a kind of a fatal drug, a trap without an obvious escape.

Heather Fox had indeed gathered some experience in the field of posing, and this was at rural pageants. Those events were celebrations of the local peasants, craftsman, and merchants; they served for the promotion of the products of the region, and they were hardly comparable with beauty pageants in the bigger city, such as the ones alluded to in some episodes of the products of Daniel Schneider. Heather, for example, had been the pork princess of her county; this was known to Dolores and to Amanda, who had listened carefully to Heather's proud tales of her former achievement. During those disputes, Amanda had expressed her pity for the pits eaten by mankind, whence there had been a little dispute with Heather. This is reflected in the canon of _Victorious_, where Cat has got a stuffed pink pig, and where Cat and Jade argue about the prospects of butchering it.

But there was that big step from posing for the local press in a rural region, where everyone was familiar with everyone; and posing for the cameras, ready to sent everything to the anonymous mass audience located in the most remote places.

Heather's interest in doing the latter had been kindled early during her life at the academy, because here she had contact with girls that were already established models working for the promotion of the products of the big companies: Fashion, cosmetic products, sports cars, and even food and drinks. Due to the character, some of those young women lived already almost next door to Heather and Dolores. Little did the students know that Principal Deanne, far beyond concentrating on educating future stars of the Broadway, also made money with selling—in some sense—the girls to companies working in the sector of sales promotion. While this practice was not officially welcome by the board of the academy, it was largely tolerated by the responsible officers, who were eager on finding new ways of sponsoring the (increasingly costly) maintenance of the boarding school.

Some of the companies contributing to this practice by renting students of the academy as hostesses for their promotional events are more or less well-known to the regular watchers of a variety of shows from the Nickelodeon Network; among them was **Mad Style**, well-known from _True Jackson VP_. **Amanda Cantwell**, one of the vice presidents, was a passionate visitor of the Broadway's performance of operas, her favourite being _La Traviata_ by **Giuseppe Verdi**, one of the greatest composers and conductors throughout the history of theatre; whence she was eagerly making donations for the Broadway, and she received, in turn, a few hostesses and models (both male and female) for the presentation of the company's products. One of Heather's and Dolores' class comrades had already started this career quite early; this was **Dakota North**, known to some readers from the episode _Babysitting Dakota_ of _True Jackson VP_. This way, Heather had got someone living next door to talk to and to get inspired by. On the one hand, she was a bit intimidated by the cold and abrasive demeanour of Dakota; while, on the other hand, she felt the need of figuring the secret of Dakota's fast and early career. She was a bit hesitating, because she was not yet willing to turn into a second Dakota, but she was fascinated by the example of some other top models that were working for Mad Style, such as **Brad D'Impala** and **Brock Champion**. Heather refused to talk to Dolores, because she had now—for the first time in her life—started to see her as a competitor to be beaten for the race; and she felt not comfortable to talk to Dakota about her deeper secret. Nevertheless, by hanging out with her comrade, she was able to contact the management of Mad Style; thereupon, she landed her very first job as a professional model and hostess. It was only a small job, and payment was little, but it was a promising start, as expressed by the speech of Amanda Cantwell after the event.

During the first two years of middle school, Heather enjoyed the little attention obtained by occasional missions for companies like Mad Style, but the time to dig deeper would still come ...

At the same time, Dolores Martinez started to envy those class comrades who were already paid for their performance, but she still thought that her talent, her hard work, and her dedication, at least when taken together with some innocent contacts she was up to establishing, sufficed in order to grant her a great career in the show business. For that avail, she did not try to go the way of Heather and Dakota, but would have loved to become as famous as Brock Champion or Bradley d'Impala. She started feeling that the Broadway was insufficient for her dreams, and that she would need Hollywood for her goals of becoming rich and famous; but she was not yet sure what price she was willing to pay. Nevertheless, she suspiciously watched every step made by her room comrade Heather Fox.


	3. Heather Dives Into The Dark Arts

**Chapter 3 Heather Dives Into The Dark Arts**

* * *

><p><strong><span>3:1 New Students At Broadway Academy<span>**

This was the beginning of Dolores' and Heather's third year at the school for future stars of the Broadway, and the campus saw a few new students for the very first time; which was not utterly true in the case of **Trinidad Vega**. known to most of you as Dolores' dream sister from _Victorious_, because this girl had already visited her actually remote relative on and off. You also know her as **Rebecca** from a few episodes of _Zoey 101_, starting with _Surprise_. The reader is not quite unlikely to object that Rebecca and Trina and Vega would behave like strangers when meeting on the campus of Pacific Coast Academy, but this observation is just the result of good acting, as you would expect from two students of some renowned theatre school. The reasons for Lola's and Rebecca's cheap farce will have to be seen later down the road, once we return to the beaches of Malibu. The canon of _Victorious_ makes you believe that she had only made it accidentally into the school, and that she was totally devoid of talent; however, this, while true for singing, was not true for Rebecca's or Trina's dance skills. The busty Latino girl was incredibly nimble and well-coordinated, as should be obvious from her martial practice demonstrated in _Helen Is Back_; indeed, she would join the cheer-leading squad of the academy, as she had already performed in a similar manner at her previous school. The relationship of Trinidad and Dolores was often awkward, causing Marissa Benson to become even more rude than usual and to punish the whole residence block for their deeds, which did not make them more popular. But the troubles between Trinidad and Heather were even bigger, and, although the latter feigned staying cool, she started boiling inside every time she even had to think about the Latino.

While Trinidad was already a high-school girl, the next student to be presented was just starting her middle-school life, and her name was **Patricia Kirby**. The regular watcher of _Zoey 101_ will potentially recognise her from _Bad Girl_, but she is known under so many other names throughout the works of Nickelodeon: Samantha Puckett, **Melanie Puckett** (from _The iCarly Show_, episode _iTwins_, Fawn Leibowitz (_Victorious_, episode _Crazy Ponnie_), Ann Pinky Turzo from _True Jackson VP_, ... Once again, there is no reason to get lead astray by the fact that Dolores Martinez and Patricia Kirby acted like utter strangers during said episode; for their supreme acting skills sufficed in order to fool Zoey, Nicole, and Chase into thinking just everything desired. And now it is time to reveal what some of the smart readers have already guesses: Patricia Kirby is the dreamer of what is known to most of you as the canon of _The iCarly Show_. The title of said episode of _Zoey 101_ does not lead you astray, it just describes Samantha Puckett alias Trisha Kirby alias Ann Turzo ... as what she is: A bad girl, or even the epitome of _Bad Girl_. Her dream, as revealed in said episode, was that of becoming a professional race car girl, although she would also accept motor bicycles—as long as they were heavy, fast, and loud enough to boast with and to intimidate all envious rivals. She was actually also a gifted skater; this was exactly what had allowed her to access Broadway's illustrious boarding school, as a growing number of modern musicals were whole stage on ice, or at least included scenes with inline skates. Lane Alexander was the dedicated mentor of Trisha Kirby, and he had more or less sponsored her admission to the boarding school.

Readers will wonder about the other main figures of Patricia's dream: **Carlotta Shay**, her brother **Spencer Shay**, and also **Gibby**, about whose given name there are no consistent hints throughout the canon. Well, Carly Shay is a distorted dream version of **Paige Howard**, known to some lucky readers from _Zoey 101_, episode _Paige At PCA_; likewise, Spencer is a slightly displaced version of **Vinicius Bassett**, the brother (Vinnie) of Wilma Bassett alias Kreuftlva, who will enter the scene a bit later down the road. Gibby is designed following the traits of **Darren Vader**, a fellow student at Broadway Academy For Arts whom Patricia influenced a lot. The watcher of previously mentioned _Swindle_ (another dream by Patricia Kirby) will certainly recognise him as a co-protagonist, and he is also a guest in _The Troop_, another Nickelodeon Show, where he is the prototype for a funny monster known as **The Sniffer**, in _A Sniff Too Far_. He had deserved his reputation by his optimistic curiosity, in spite of getting frequently punished for it—especially by Patricia Kirby, whom he had once asked for a dance. His thumbs would hurt from her rude and violent reply even for years to come.

It is no accident that Victoria's dream depicts Fawn Leibowitz alias Patricia Kirby—she used a new identity at each school she visited—, the way she does. During their comm on time at Broadway Academy, and even later at Pacific Coast Academy, Dolores Martinez would feel permanently threatened by the obnoxiously bad blonde. Being driven crazy and being kidnapped, as in said episode, were just some of the expectations that had filled Dolores' mind since the day of Patricia Kirby's arrival. But this did not mean that Dolores and Patricia could not get along nicely when needed, although it was always a quite fragile kind of peace—just as the peace between Heather and Patricia, or that between Heather and Dolores!

It is now also necessary to mention another new pupil relevant for the sequel: **Leanne Veronica Carter**, known from previously mentioned _The iCarly Show_-episode _iWas A Pageant Girl_, but also from one episode _Auditioning_ of _The Thundermans_, yet another work of Nickelodeon. In both cases we see Leanne as a gifted musician (among many other artist talents), but while Leanne is an obvious pacifist in Patricia's dream, she is spiteful and mean in the latter.

It is important to remark that _The Thundermans_ is a dream by **Britannica Walsh**, known from Nickelodeon's film _Tery The Tomboy_ and nicknamed to **Cherry**. Britannica was still as ingenuous and inoffensive as Cherry of _Thundermans_ when she joined Broadway Academy Of Arts, but she would turn increasingly mean by following examples to live up to, such as Samantha Puckett and Jade West ...

After all, Leanne Veronica Carter was not just a pacifist, she was much more than that, and her proper essence could not be grasped by the vulgar average student of Broadway. They would react in different ways, but prevalently in the ways the **pharisees** of the _New Testament_, proponents of orthodox and canonical piety, reacted to the appearance of the Lord, epitome of divine wisdom and knowledge, especially in the _Gospel According Of John_, which, among the works of the _New Testament_, is certainly the one least adulterated and corrupted by worldly institutions.

* * *

><p><strong><span>3:2 The Early Career Of Dakota North<span>**

* * *

><p><strong><span>3:2:1 Nina Martin<span>**

For many a month, Heather had tried to observe Dakota in order to figure how she had made her career; for, unlike many other girls and even a few boys, she did not want to appear unduly curious. Indeed, Heather assumed that Dakota did not even notice how inquisitive was deep inside; but she was mistaken.

In the middle of a plenilunar night in the early fall, Heather woke up due to some weird noises at the door: It was someone knocking, but the rhythm of the sound showed a weird pattern. Nevertheless, Heather did not hesitate opening for the visitor, who turned out as Dakota North. For some obscure reason, Heather had been sure that it was not a dangerous stranger; for that avail she, had not been afraid of opening the door, in spite of thus violating one of the rules established by Marissa Benson. No visitors were allowed past 9 p.m., not even fellow residents of the academy; many girls got already caught breaking the rule and punished somewhat, although Principal Deanne refused to expel any who looked still somewhat promising as a potential source of income for the school. On the other hand, Heather was clueless as of Dakota's reasons for the late visit; this feeling would increase after Dakota declared that she was up to telling Heather what the latter had most obviously wanted to know for many a month already. This was apparently a revelation of the secrets of Dakota's career, something she could have told her by day, and much earlier. The official excuse was the fact that Dakota needed to choose carefully with whom she wanted to share the foundations of her career, as there were many envious competitors and opportunists at Broadway Academy. Without saying it explicitly, it was clear for Heather that Dakota was alluding, albeit not exclusively, to Dolores Martinez. While this is true, the magical moment had just not yet come, and the full moon rising above the campus was part of the right constellation.

Before summarising the content of Dakota's report, it is in order to remind the gentle reader of the obvious yet important fact that she was only able to reveal what she knew about herself. The ancient **Oracle Of Apollo At Delphi** promoted the words of wisdom _gnothi seauton_, roughly translated as _know yourself_; for, as a matter of fact, very few people knew themselves—at least in the sense of this ancient saying.

As a first remark, Dakota North declared that this was just an artist's pseudonym, whereas her given name was **Nina Martin**. The well-informed reader will easily identify her as the same actress's part in yet another series by Nickelodeon, id est _House Of Anubis_. Indeed, the latter canon is a dream of Nina alias Dakota, a dream she had had at the beginning of her career. Nina Martin was from Cleveland, Ohio; yet her mother's family was rooted in the state of North Dakota, and this had always been her beloved place for vacations during her infancy, whence she had chosen to base her pseudonym upon this fact.

Thereupon, Heather reflected whether she would also want to have an artist's pseudonym, and she figured that it would be great to involve a direction as well. In anology with _North Dakota_, Heather thought about _West Virginia._, and from which her pseudonym would have been _Virginia West_; but later, she would switch from _Virginia_ to _Jade_—for reasons to be reported later down the road. At the same time, Heather was surprised because Nina had been pretty much a country girl like herself, whereas she appeared to fit perfectly into the life of the big city, as demonstrated during their visits to events in Manhattan.

Nina's career as a model had started a little earlier, under the influence of Brad D'Impala, her example to live up to. Little had Nina ever known about the true nature of this model, and so Heather would not yet obtain any deeper information about him. This encounter had occurred in Cleveland, whereupon Nina had applied for a job as a model, directly at one of Brad's customers: Mad Style in the heart of Manhattan. Usually, aspiring models went to an agency, where a hard and, in most cases, disappointing procedure was awaiting them; but this was not the case for Nina Martin alias Dakota North, for causes that are not understandable by means of pure natural reasoning. Nina had been, and still was, ingenuous enough to believe that it was exclusively due to her natural charm and her talent that she had been chosen over many aspiring canditates that had already been waiting in the queues of professional agencies for many a month; whence Heather did not suppose anything different, and she believed that her own natural qualities were all that was needed in order to follow the paths of Nina Martin, of Brad D'Impala, and of Brock Champion.

Back when Nina had applied, Mad Style was stuck in the middle of a big project: They needed to style the official outfit for a British boarding school, known as **Covington** to watchers of _Zoey 101_. Those schools have got a great tradition, and school uniforms are paramount for life at such a school. Unfortunately, Mad Style had not got an expert for young fashion, and they would not have until the arrival of **True Jackson**, the canonical heroïne of the show named on her behalf. Thence arrogant and cold-blooded Amanda Cantwell, in charge with the project, had been desperate enough to choose a really unexperienced girl applying in the right moment, one that looked like the perfect embodiment of a female student that these kind of schools would be proud of; this seems to explain the untypical start of Nina's career, but, after all, there is no such thing as a dumb accident.

* * *

><p><strong><span>3:2:2 The Raven Of Covington Academy<span>**

In order to present and sell their creations, Amanda Cantwell had sent a delegation to the campus of the venerable preparatory school of Covington, located a bout as far outside the gates of the metropolitan area of London, the royal capital, as Broadway Academy For Performance Arts was distanced from those of New York City, or Pacific Coast Academy from those of Los Angeles. Besides from _The House Of Anubis_, where it is the main setting, and _Zoey 101_, where it is mentioned by name, the school is also known from Nickelodeon's _Supah Ninjas_ as the anonymous British school that had been visited by guest character **Cameron Vanterhouse**. Summing it up, it had hosted quite a few American students, at least from time to time, and thence there had been connections to the American world of business.

Unlike US-American culture, which is basically rooted on the spirit of the age of enlightenment, renowned British institutions trace back to the medieval age and even beyond. This was also the case for Covington's, whose roots reach way back to the era when the the royal house and the nobility were a lot more privileged than today; thus, while open for citizens of all classes, the roots of the school as an institution of the aristocratic youth were undeniable. Even visitors like Nina Martin got to see this, although the students appeared pretty much enlightened and free of aristocratic arrogance. While presenting the works of Amanda Cantwell, Nina had been working with various current students of Covington's, most of them appearing under the same or a different name also in her dream that constituted the canon of _The House Of Anubis_.

The most prominent acquaintance from that time was one **Victor Rodenmaar**, and, as the watchers of _The House Of Anubis_ know, he was not a student, but more of a caretaker of one of the houses. While much of the canon is the product of Nina's subsequent fantasy, wherein she fancies a life at this school, some points are based on her impression while visiting the school; this custodian is depicted in her dreams, at least initially, just as she knew him from her visit to Great Britain.

The signature trait of arrogant and abrasive Victor Rodenmaar was his obsession with a stuffed black raven named **Corbierre**.

The raven is known as the classical symbol for impending horror, usually the death of a familiar person—at least in the imagination of vulgar people, who consider death as something to fear; whereas others see the raven as a critical, but not necessarily unfortunate omen. While many Western artists have picked up the symbol of this mystery-covered bird in their works, the most impressive deployment is—beyond any trace of a doubt—the short poem _The Raven_ by **Edgar Allan Poe**, one of the ultimate grand masters of Anglo-Saxon literature.

As a matter of fact, Nina Martin had hitherto not been aware of Poe's poetry, nor of the variety of interpretations of the symbol of the raven in the lore of the peoples of the world. Nevertheless, she had been influenced when she has stared directly into the face of Corbierre. This was the first time in her life when her demeanour changed from that of an inoffensive country peach into that of an arrogant and abrasive diva, thus assuming to a good (and steadily growing) deal the personality of the uncanny custodian who owned the stuffed raven. This metamorphosis—of which Nina Martin alias Dakota North had not even been aware—was thus the very reason for the subsequent success of Nina Martin as a model of increasing global renown.

Heather, when listening to Nina's (or Dakota's) report, had not yet seen the connection. Although the depiction of the raven and of Victor Rodanmaar had impressed her. Edgar Allan Poe was, as expected, part of the education of the students of the academy; this notwithstanding, the teachers, including Sikowitz, André Chaumont, and Sofia Michelle, lacked any skills to make proper sense of the depth of the works of this supreme poet and—even more—supreme prophet of a spiritual truth which is systematically oppressed and misused by the representatives of an increasingly decadent and degenerate culture.

* * *

><p><strong><span>3:3 Heather Meets Madame Kreuftlva<span>**

* * *

><p><strong><span>3:3:1 Encounter At Waverly Place<span>**

Once more, Heather Fox was visiting New York City, the city of freedom, but also of despair and loneliness, for the sake of working as a model for one of the companies residing in the Borg of Manhattan.

From Nina alias Dakota, she had learned that many stars of the scene were regularly visiting soothsayers, and that those were found frequently at the fringe of events like fashion weeks and presentations of new cosmetic products. Most of them were nothing more than shallow sensationalists, worth about as much as the daily horoscopes in your local newspaper; whereas some of them actually knew what they were doing, but not necessarily whom to tell about it ...

Like most of the conservative rural folk, Heather Fox did not really want to be associated with what the official churches tried to make them think of as superstition or foul magics. But seeing Jenna Lotrell walk around and talk about the aura of various people had made her curious, for the Broadway diva had been able to read the emotions of Heather's class mates. Heather was—at least initially—not actively interested in performing the same occult activities as Jenna, but she only needed to find a way to hide her own emotions from being scanned by similarly gifted observers.

Walking **Waverly Place**, an important spot in Manhattan named for a proper noun from a series of historical novels by **Sir Walter Scott**, Heather was grasped by a weird feeling, as if observed by witches. Granted, the reader familiar with the works of Nickelodeon's worst competitor, **Disney Channel**, will recognise the influence of one of their productions, named for the same place, behind this statement, but Heather could not know this. Likewise, only few pupil here at Waverly Place, such as Kreuftlva, knew about Scott's _Letters On Demonology And Witchcraft_—the very reason for her to choose a place named for one of Scott's main characters.

And so, when our peach turned around, she spotted Kreuftla for the very first time; further, and a cold crystal ball, typical for soothsayers, stabbed Heather's eyes. Heather reacted brashly—which she had not wanted to, and which she did not want to happen again.

Kreuftlva smiled, and she recognised that Heather was standing in negotiations for a new contract. Heather acknowledged this as true, and she was not really surprised to hear that the strange lady had figured this much. Kreuftlva shrugged, and she slipped a business card into Heather's hands, remarking that a young super-starlet would need some advice before signing a contract with a big business man.

Heather did not object, because she knew how many of her school-comrades had been disappointed by their contracts with event hosts; which was—as some of you will have guessed—a consequence of the fact that Principal Deanne did not really care about her students; whence she felt at ease with the thought of getting a decent lawyer take care of her contracts. For the time being, she did not know that Kreuftlva was not only a witch, but also a lawyer; but she would soon figure ...

* * *

><p><strong><span>3:3:2 In The Witch's Library<span>**

Little wonder, Heather was surprised upon entering the address indicated on the card, and she thought to have been misguided. The room she had entered was nothing but a library of the magical arts, full of forbidden books—according to what the peach had learned from her rural environment.

The library contained many a book mentioned above, such as the works of Lévi, Hugo, Gurdjieff, Poe. In many a case, Heather was surprised why the books spotted on the shelves figured in the ranks of all those depicting strange magical symbols: Nobody had—as aforementioned—taught her about the secret associations of the authors!

Technically, Kreuftlva was only an approved lawyer in California, but she was able to see the weaknesses of a contract, regardless where; and it took her not too much to realise how bad the contract was; whereupon she designed an improved and upgraded contract, and she told Heather to go to an approved lawyer's as soon as it turned out that the agency was stubborn.

Heather nodded in agreement, but she was really distracted by the atmosphere in Kreuftlva's hideout; and she would even get an occasion to take a closer look, because kreuftlva was distracted by a mobile call coming from her previously mentioned brother (really: half-brother) Vinicius Bassett. She explained that Vinnie wanted to take care of their nephew; whereas—according to her judgement–the crazed freak was the one who needed custody. Still during Kreuftlva's telephone call, Heather started flipping through the pages of a book by **Robert Fludd**, the most skilled British alchemist of the age of letters, but she did not understand anything. After all, Fludd had written in Latin, which Heather had not studied—not yet! Previously mentioned Edgar Allan Poe refers prominently to Fludd's theories of transformation and alchemy in his _Fall Of The House Of Usher_, which Heather would not yet have understood in any way.

Done with the call, Kreuftlva noticed Heather's interest, and she knew very well why the starlet was interested; whence she told her: "you want to promote your career by means of secret rituals?"

Denial was futile, but Heather still did not want to admit expressis verba to her intentions.

Kreuftlva hesitated, but then she admonished Heather to be careful, because the consequences of the abuse of magical knowledge were detrimental for anyone; more than anything else, she insisted in getting the starlet to study the theory of magics before even thinking about any ritual, and even then it would be the better to start by assisting an experienced witch.

Heather Fox doubted that, as a fairly girl of rural origin, she would ever posses the ability of learning what was necessary; and some basic understanding of medieval Latin was only one minor subject on this way, as stated by Kreuftlva. But the mistress of witchcraft knew that Heather would—sooner or later—just try to jump into the dark waters of practice, and so she handed a commented copy of _Fall Of The House Of Usher_.

Heather promised to be careful, but she appeared to have lost her natural patience which she was so proud of. This urged her to hurry up, and it made it less and less likely for her to wait until she was capable of learning her necessary lessons.

* * *

><p><strong><span>3:4 The Last Preparations<span>**

* * *

><p><strong><span>3:4:1 The Meaning Of Jade<span>**

As reported, Heather had originally chosen to rename herself _Virginia West_, but she did reconsider and switch to _Jade West_; whence it is our task to understand the meaning of _Jade_ in that context.

Already a popular site such as **crystalvaults dot com** introduces the mineral known as **jade**—among other qualities—as _the ultimate dream stone_. From there alone, it is not hard to understand that Heather's spiritual adviser, Madame Kreuftlva alias Wilma Bassett, appreciated the symbol of the jade stone as a means of accessing and understanding your own soul. Further, the incredibly tough consistency of the mineral (actually two of them, known as **nephrite** and **jadeite**)—as demonstrated by its ancient use for weapons and tools—lead to its reputation as possessing protective qualities, making it ideal for crafting amulets for various purposes. In eastern Asia, the jade stone was said to be able to cure ailments of the kidneys.

The jade stone is usually known in its green variant, but other colours do occur, and lore assigns those minerals some variant significance.

We do not have to dive here into the chemical and geological aspects of the jade minerals, as—assumably—someone like Quinn Pensky would have done; for Heather Fox was not interested in scientific mineralogy when she chose her auxiliary name.

Nina Martin had chosen her artist's name for the public, but Heather would go a different way: She would keep her given name for her day persona, and use her chosen super-name as an artist's name for her secret arts.

* * *

><p><strong><span>3:4:2 Tattoo Artist Agnella<span>**

As expected, Heather (or Jade) had got troubles understanding the comments on Poe's use of the theories of Fludd, which—despite her lack of understanding—she was eager on applying unto herself in order to be able to let the hidden forces of the nature and of darkness act according to her wishes.

So far, Heather's alias Jade's right arm was free of any marks, but after having heard from Madame Kreuftlva about the meaning of symbols, she had started thinking that a magical tattoo, even more than the choice of a protective artist's name and wearing symbolic jewelry, would serve its purpose of letting Jade achieve what she wanted: Dealing with the dark powers, the messengers of the underworld, without having to fear to get dragged away by them.

Among all symbols suggested by her mentor, the pentagram appeared most attractive to the fledgling supermodel; thence she wanted it engraved onto her body, as soon as only possible. Of course she was too young to do so without her parents' consent, and such a step would have wreaked unspeakable havoc back in her home community; thence Jade needed to disguise and hide this step even from her family. In the meantime, she had been made aware of the divorce of her parents; whence her respect for the opinions of her family had decreased rapidly, making her drop any hesitation and objection to cheating on them and her old acquaintances.

Patricia Kirby, who had got some tattoo on her rear cheeks, knew a tattoo artist remorseless enough to perform her arts on minors without asking for the necessary permission: **Madame Agnella**, known to the careful watchers of _The iCarly Show_ as **Annie** from the episode _iStakeOut_; having shared her knowledge with Heather Fox, there was nothing to stop the latter and make her run to the charlatan in order to get the Seal of Solomon stamped onto her right arm. The name _Agnella_ is derived from _agnus_, a Latin expression for lamb; this is a consequence of the fact that her first tattoo had been in the likeness of a little lamb, which her customer saw as the symbol of innocence and purity. Jade insisted in following exactly the geometrical instructions she had copied from one of the books found in Kreuftlva's library.

Usually, Agnella would have expected quite a lot of payment, and even more in order to keep everything from secret; in order to do the latter, Agnella even needed to change her artist's identity and to look for a new location to perform her dubious business. But the artist owed some favour to Miss Kirby, who had once saved her from a gang of rowdies supporting one of Agnella's closest rivals.

Being still the same person as lawyer Wilma Bassett, Kreuftlva knew very well that Heather alias Jade was up to performing an illegitimate act; yet she decided not to intervene, as she knew that the goth and supermodel would react in brash ways and commit real serious deeds if disturbed. Alas, her remorse were sensible for anyone watching her; which, due to her reclusive style, would happen rarely, but surely. One of her tricks in order to be able disguise her own double-life had been the frequent swapping of employees in her office; by which those she needed to live with did not find enough time to wonder about what she was really doing.

* * *

><p><strong><span>3:4:3 First Summon Of Beck Oliver<span>**

With the seal of Solomon on her right arm, Jade West, the neophyte cultist, felt finally confident enough to indulge in the ritual practice, following the previous instructions by books found in the library of Kreuftlva. She tried to do so without the supervision of the experienced soothsayer, but she did not feel that she was doing the right thing; whereupon she contacted her mentor in order to let her assist in the whole thing.

As expected, Kreuftlva repeated her warnings against careless abuse of magic rituals; likewise, she sensed that Jade was up to going out of her way in order to be able to achieve way more than Dakota North alias Nina Martin had ever achieved before her—or would ever achieve. In other worse: The star tattoo was going to make her the greatest start on the scene ever, and—as completely opposed to Dakota North alias Nina Martin—she would still appear the same innocent peach as she had been for many years.

The first session had failed; but, instead of giving up—as suggested by her mentor—, Jade kept on practising alone while at home in her chamber. Finally, a demonic presence appeared in front of her, a beautiful and seductive young man whom the reader knows as Beck Oliver (possibly among other names). This would be Jade's guarding demon for the time of her career, but she would have to sacrifice him a lot, day for day, week for week, in order to maintain the power needed for a career as the convincingly nice yet outrageously successful supermodel she wanted to be.

But having skipped her theory would surely demand its toll …


	4. A Brute Incident And Departure From Broa

**Chapter 4 A Capital Onslaught And Subsequent Departure From Broadway**

* * *

><p><strong><span>4:1 Nightly Rituals<span>**

During the following weeks, Heather Fox repeated nightly rituals copied thoughtlessly from the books in the library of Kreuftlva at Waverly Place, summoning one demon after the other. If she had been alone and unobserved, the whole business would have been perfect, but she still had to share her dormitory room with Dolores Martinez. So did the Latino beauty notice anything, and how did she react?

Well, there was an easy trick for Heather Fox: She pretended that she needed to prepare for a rôle in some scary commercial anbnounce to be shot later on; and, actually, this was not just totally plausible, but not even a lie. What she hid, though, was the fact that she had deliberately chosen to try out for this part—for the very purpose of having some excuse for having some dark outfit in her closet. As the girls took turns in doing their laundry, the presence of some gloomy outfit would not have escaped from Dolores' intentions; with hindsight, Dolores would even get the idea of fooling Nicole and Zoë from Jade's participation in a scary scene for a commercial video.

Whenever Dolores happened to wake up in the middle of the night,she noticed Jade in her dark outfit; from this, she could have started to begin really scared, but she was still ingenuous enough to believe in Heather's excuse. This would even hold for the nightly episodes when Beck appeared in their dormitory room in order to accomplish the commands of Heather alias Jade. Needless to say, boys were not at all allowed in the dormitory rooms of the girls, and even less so after midnight. Marissa Benson would have been upset, and she tended to control the girls' rooms on a regular base for signs of male intrusions. By no means was Dolores inclined to denounce Heather for this, because she anticipated that, one day, she would have her own boyfriend here in her room, and then she would want Heather to remain quiet about it.

On the other hand, Dolores envied Heather indeed for her unusually attractive boyfriend, whom she had not yet recognised as the demon that he was; thus a certain degree of jealousy would cloud the relationship between Heather and Dolores for the weeks to come, but that was nowhere near as important as represented by Daniel Schneider; additionally, many girls other than Dolores Martinez would get to see Heather and Beck and be subsequently struck by the same kind of feeling—as fully intended by Heather alias Jade.

* * *

><p><strong><span>4:2 Hearing About Pacific Coast Academy<span>**

* * *

><p><strong><span>4:2:1 Broadway Alumnus Fletcher St. Troy<span>**

So far, neither Dolores Martinez, nor Heather Fox had heard about Pacific Coast Academy, a school far away; but the reader altready knows that it will be a crucial setting in Dolores' future life, and that even Heather won't be able to sidestep it forever.

The ignorance of those girls notwithstanding, there had been some sort of connection between both schools, and those will have to be explored now. For instance, Pacific Coast Academy is equipped with a drama club—like so many schools across the country—. The club was hitherto advised by one **F;etcher St. Troy**, who figures in the episode _The Play_; the second part of his name, however, is given in the episode _Epic Musical_ of _Bucket & Skinner__'__s Epic Adventures_, another work by Nickelodeon's comnprehensive network. But who was this drama teacher really, and where did he comne from?

St. Troy was indeed an alumnus of Broadway Academy For Performance Arts, and he had thereupon started a career as an actor at the Broadway—albeit only a few little rôles. For. like so many, he had performed more for commercial advertisements than for the big stage, and thereupon, he had made the step across the continent to Los Angeles in order to perform in, and to assist in the production of, various fabrications for the screens of Hollywood. Back then, alumni of Broadway's preparatory school, as well as young actors with some initial experience on t eh big stage, had always been welcome by the big producers ruling the studios of Los Angeles. **Malcolm Reese**, whome the reader possibly knows from _Zoey 101_ episodes such as _Spring Breakup_, was the first of the big produceers employing St. Troy for productions made at **Sunset Sudio**, a place mentioned in episodes such as _Drake And Josh Go Hollywood_ (of _Drake & Josh_) and of _A Film By Dales Squires_ (of _Victorious_).

While St. Troy's career had been fairly steep, he was not easy to work with, especially due to his stubborn resistence against patches and ammendments of screen script, as insinuated in _The Play_; resultingly, a clash with the fellow actors, directors, and the god-like producer (videlicet: Malcolm Reese) had been impossible to avaoid on the long run. And when these conflicts turned up during the production of an important movie, Malcolm had to make a clear decision; his subsequent judgement declared that any further cooperation with Fletcher St. Troy during a current professional production was impossible. After the suspension of St. Troy's contract, the work on the set had been accelerated greatly and allowed for the first Oscar of Malcolm Reese.

These conflicts notwithstanding, Malcolm Reese did not deem Fletcher St. Troy completely incompetent; thereupon and for that reasion, he recommended this Broadway graduate for a career as a teacher for drama and dance at elementary- and middle-schools; in doing so, the star producer was aware of the fact that pupils of the lower grades needed more stern rules and patterns, for the purpose of education and formation, than those valid in production sets for the big screen, where a certain degree of flexibility was paramount in order to satisfy the demands of a rapidly changing profile of the target audience.

Pacific Coast Academy was a school for general education, but the vicinity to Los Angeles implied that Hollywood exercised a huge influence. Some gread producers (including Malcolm) donated millions of dollars for the extension and the upgrades of the acadmy; whereas other companies represented in the board of sponsors used Hollywood as a medium for promoting their own products. As a result, there was little surprise when the vacation of a drama teacher at a school co-sponsored by Malcolm Reese was filled with a canditate recommended by Malcolm Reese.

A few years had gone by since Fletcher St. Troy's departure from New York City, but this did not mean that the drama teacher had lost all of his contacts. Several alumni who were nowadays teaching—at least upon occasion—at the sacred academy of the big stage were still corresponding regularly with their former comrade; this list included Lane Alexander, Erwin Sikowitz, Sofia Michelle, and Jenna Lotrell.

Some readers will wonder whether Broadway Academy had ever been up to hiring St. Troy; but note that Pacific Coast Academy, with the mightiest sponsors of the whole Pacific Coast due to the financial powerhouses of Hollywood, disposed of a much larger monetary potential than Broadway Academy would ever have been able to dream of; whence hiring some teacher off Pacific Coast Academy, although possible, was a rather rare occurrence—especially for teachers for the lower grades.

The contact included regular exachanges about the programme of St. Troy's drama club and i9nteresting participants; as aconsequence, St. Troy sometimes selected rejected Broadway plays, submitted by his comrades, for performance at Pacific Coast Academies; further, some envoys of the Broadway were occasionally invited to the performances at the Pacific Coast Academy in order to supply some profound professional critique; likewise, quite a few future actors, playwrights, and directors had been discovered because Broadway alumni working at various schools thprughout the country wrote recommendations for them.

And there was also a school play at Pacific Coast Academy during Dolores' and Heather's last year of middle-school at Broadway Academy …

* * *

><p><strong><span>4:2:2 A Play By Chase Matthews And Its Reception<span>**

Without going too deep into the content of the play, it suffices to recapitualte that it culminated in a kiss between the main actor and teh main actress. Said actress was Zoë Brooks, and the playwright, Chase Matthews, had written the play for no other purpose; of course, he had fancied himself in the main rôle, but he had failed competing with somatic narcissist **Logan Reese**, another member of the main cast of _Zoey 101_. The kiss would, however, never occur, as Zoë was disgusted by Logan's rudeness during a short break.

Dean Rivers would deem a lip kiss inappropriate for a middle school play and rebuke Fletcher St. Troy thereupon. This is not canon, but understandable; whence it will not surprise that the teacher would have to leave Pacific Coast Academy just a little later and end up at **Pacific Bluff** near San Diego—the canonical setting of _Bucket & Skinner__'__s Epic Adventures_.

The former comrades of St. Troy who were still working at Broadway Academy had been informed beforehand about the impending performance of the play by Chase Matthews, and they had even been invited to send a small delegation in order to attend the event—live on site. While there had been no such delegation, a video clip recording the performance and a copy of Chase Matthew's script had been sent across the continent for the same purpose; in addition, there was one live report of the performance, and these news came from **Janitor Herb**, an underaid worker on the campus of Pacific Coast Academy, who was trying to switch to a career as an actor/ The gentle viewer of _Zoey 101_ will remember all this from the episode _Defending Justin_, where he gives an impressive display of his acting expertise; whence he will not be surprised by learning that Herb was also auditioning for the Broadway.

Upon the visitors' return to the Broadway, the staff of the drama-school had to discuss the play, the actors, and the playwright; for, in the case of a favourable judgement, there would be a possibility for a paid internship at the most important theatre of the Western world and a professional adaptation of the play for the big stage.

The teachers involved in the decision did not refrain from discussing the form and content of the play as well as the performance of the actors with their students, including the classes of Heather and Dolores. This included critical watching the videoclip and table-reading the script.

Dolores Martinez had not got the slightest problem identifying the very reason for the existence of the play, although she had never vefore heard anything about Chase Matthews; for it was easy to figure that Chase was coveting Zoë, but lacked the courage to fess up to his apparent feelings; in order to explain this, Lola just had to figure that such an ugly freak had suffered feelings of severe inferiority in the presence of a stunningly charming girl; as a consequence, Dolores pitied the uncomely junior playwright for his incompetence, and she fancied helping him somehow to declare his feelings unto the blond Miss Perfect. Of course, her opportunities for actually helping Chase were limited due to the geographical distance between New York and the region of Los Angeles.

Heather Fox had not got any ambitions of helping Chase, for she thought that ugly boys did not deserve beautiful girls; even more, she was secure in the knowledge that Logan Reese was not much different from her beloved Beck Oliver—at least in some aspects. Nevertheless, she figured that Logan, the son of the emperor of Hollywood, was looking down on the stage, including the big stage of the Broadway, as something inferior to the studio of Hollywood, and that he was participating in the play only in order to torture Chase Matthews. As a country peach, she found this appalling, but she had learned fast that it was a necessary step on the way to fame and popularity. Heather did not hesitate writing her own version of Chase's play in order to demonstrate that it was just a poor excuse of a comedy, with or without the not-so-anticipated ending.

Herb's report turned out most useful for Sofia Michelle, who was in charge with deciding whether Chase deserved a chance to work for the Broadway —albeit only in the frame of a summer fellowship. Herb was a witness of teh fact that Chase had tried to change a _kiss_ into a _kill_, just in order to prevent Logan from kissing Zoey. This fact was a bit surprising for Sofia, but she decided—nothing withstanding—to invite Chase for a bootcamp workshop at the Broadway. This decision was cheered by Dolores, who thought to be able to get Chase to conquer Zoey by means of acting in a way to make her jealous.

But Chase Matthews, disappointed by the undeniable fact that his plan had not turned out as expercted, tried to erase any memory of his stray attempt; not even the unforseen outcome of the play had changed his mind, it had just limited the damage to some extend; whence Chase decided to decline the offer from Sofia Michelle. But this did not necessarily imply that any chance of starting a career as a playwright at the Broadway was now lost for Chase—quite the contrary!

* * *

><p><strong><span>4:3 Finally Falling<span>**

* * *

><p><strong><span>4:3:1 Pushing Downward<span>**

The smart viewer of the collected works of Daniel Schneider have impossibly failed to notice Schneider's obsession with pushing people down a hole, a staircase, a step, a slope, or something like that. The main nculprit in most of these cases is no other than Samantha Puckett—under whatever name—. although there arfe a few anonymous cases.

_iHate Sam's Boyfriend_, an early episode of _The iCarly Show_, mentiuons that Samantha has—once upon a time—pushed her boyfriend of that time, **Franckie Murkin**, off a branch in a tree he was sitting on.

Even earlier, on _iLike Jake_, Samantha wants to push **Jake Crendle**, a tall blond womaniser who had captured Carly's heart, down the elevator in Carly's loft. Fredward Benson even offered to commit the same violent crime, emphasising the vciral character of teenage violence in a time of the decadence of spirituak values.

In _iFight Shelby Marx_, Samantha tells Carly Shay to push **Ethel Marx**, the elderly grandmother of guest star **Shelby Marx**—yet another dream disguise of Dolores Martinez—down some step. Granted, Schneider has tried hard to fool the ingenuous reader into believing that this was just a rumour spread by **Nevel Papperman**, a falsely reviled—but in any case mentally and morally superior—recurring character of the show, with the purpose of making Shelby mad at Carly. But the wary ready won't get misguided by this kind of fraud and recognise that it had been Samantha's intention, outspoken or not, to hurt the elderly lady. Likewise, we see in an archive footage that Samantha had actively promoted pushing her own grandmother down some water chute, another vicious activity emphasising Samantha's unredeemable cruelty that is permanently euphemised—and even rhapsodised—by Dan Schneider.

In _iWas A Pageant Girl_, we learn that Samantha once pushed Leanne Carter down a staircase. Once again, Schneider does everything to justify, in the eyes of the ingenuous watcher, the unrestrained and remoreseless cruelty of Samantha Puckett.

This goes ieven further in _iSaw Him First_, where guest **Shane** is seen falling down an empty elevator hole after noticing how he had been used by Samantha and Carly. This time, Schneider tries even to hide a causal connection between the chute and Samantha's intervention; this notwithstanding, the less ingenuous reader infers correctly that the one and only culprit in this scene is no other than Samantha Puckett, in analogy with the cases of Jake Crendle, Frankie Murkin, and Leanne Carter. It should also be obvious that Samantha reveals herself as an aspiring invisible Ninja—so according to _iChristmas_—;thence it is more than obvios that she has got other means than direct physical impact to get Shane fall down the hole upon whim.

Let us now leave Samantha Puckett's violent crimes—at least seemingly—behind by looking at _Beck Falls For Tori_, an episode of _Victorious_. Here, Victoria Vega alias Dolores Martinez is afraid of performing a stunt scene where she had to fall down some wall. In this scenario, it is Jade West who wishes Victoria to die from her fears and get hurt due to the impact at the end of the process of falling.

In the episode _Backpacks_ of _Zoey 101_, we see Chase Matthews and Michael barret read a girls' journal and suggest—apparently jokingly—that a girl should push her best friend down a stair case if she feels used by her. Listening to the boys' statement, Zoë Brooks correctly denounces them as sick-minded, but we never see her digging any further. But, indeed, Chase and Michael had not made up this answer; rather, they had read in the same journal a story about some similar incident that had recently occurred somewhere else—and you probably guess where, don't you?

We stay within _Zoey 101_, but return to the time when Dolores Martinez tried to pass for a goth girl, thus fooling Zoë and Nicole. We remember that she said that she had to leave her previous school because some teacher came falling down the staircase. The charming Miss Perfect and her feeble-minded sidekick assume apparently that Lola had been the culprit and got expelled for her onslaught. Later, after Lola's bluff is called, her new friends don't ever think back to this; this auggewsts stronmgly that they have forgotten about Lola's statement and seen it as part of a lie made for the purpose of acting scary. The intelligent reader, however, notiuces that Lola had never said anything about the person committing the crime of pushing a teacher downstairs, and only the fantasy of her new dormitory comrades had assigned her that part. Making it short: The incident reportyed by Dolores indeed occurred at Broadway Academy, but Lola was a witness and not a victim. Alas, having witnessed such an event had left her in a psychic state that had made it impossible for her to continue her life at the preparatory school for future stars of the big stage. Alas, this does not yet answer questions like: who did the pushing; who was the victim; and, more than everything else, why and how had the incident been brought about?

For the time being, it suffices to state that this incident was the mother of all the other similar cases occurring in the works of Daniel Schneider, and it cries for an explanation.

* * *

><p><strong><span>4:3:2 The Meaning Of The Pushing And The Downfall<span>**

As seen, Schneider is sickeningly obsessed with people getting pushed down some slope or hole, but this is to be understood from ancient folklore, with which we are all connected.

In the ancient Hellenic culture, the world of the so-called **Tartarus** was considered—or so at least by ancient intellectual **Hesiod**—a place far below; whence it was supposed to take a fall of several days in order to reach it from our world. **Plato**, the greatest of all intellectuals, had already stated in his _Gorgias_ that this was the place of confinement for souls awaiting the dystopian judgement. Besides this generalising statements, we hear about individual inhabitants confined in this deepest of all places, There are so many stories about prisoners in the Tartarus, usually upon the verdict of **Zeus**, one of the leading deities of the Hellenic world; but a closer look at some cases reveals that those verdicts are nothing but the expression of the envy and jealousy of said Zeus, as opposed to a punishment for a violent crime.

Hellenised Judaism adopted the general concept of the _Tartarus_ within the Jewish tradition of **midrash**, videlicet scriptural exegesis by means of weaving an explanatory tale around what was considered an incomplete or problematic spot in Scripture; in particlar, the most relevant source to consider is the _First Book Of Enoch_. Among other topics, this masterpiece of ancient wisdom—also one of the sources of the profound studies of previously mentioned A. —describes the expulsion of angels into the deepest depth because of their conflict with the creator deity.

We do not have the time here to serve the details of this connection, but we still assure the reader of the paramount significance of this parallel for the previously described incidences collected from the collected works of Daniel Schneider.

* * *

><p><strong><span>4:3:3 A Musical To Be Performed<span>**

The watchers of trhe episode _Tori The Zombie_ remember the musical _Uptown Downtown_ by Sofia Michelle, performed at Hollywood School For The Professional Performance Arts. Well, the same play was actually performed at Broadway Academy; Heather and Dolores, among many other students mentioned earlier up the road, were more-or-less actively involved in the preparation and the performance. This educational performance was, as not uncommon at the academy, a test-run for a subsequent professional performation on the real stage of the Broadway, and the expectations were high. Already the authorship of Sofia Michelle guaranteed for a success on the stage, whereupon live broadcasts would follow; yet later, Hollywood would buy the play and produce a remake. The students did not know that all this would happen, but they considered the possibility. In addition, the cast of the impending professional adaptation aimed for actors in their early twenties, whence some students envisioned being in it when it would actually hit the studioes of Hollywood. Considering all this, the pressure on the students was big, and way too much to handle for at least some of them.

As in the canon, the musical featured its central song, _Finally Falling_—the big showdown of the choir and about the whole cast towards the end of the play. Given the already anticipated incident, the name of the song sounded like a foreshadowing omen; or you could call it a self-fulfilling prophecy, if you are appropriately inclined. Whatever the reason—it is no accident thata musical featuring a song with such a title would lead to an incident involving falling downstairs.

Of copurse, Sofia Michelle used _falling_ in the sense of _falling in love_, but this phrase is totally absurd, for it refers to something that has indeed absolutely nothing to do with love,but everything with decadence, corruption, and perversion of the human soul. This also happens to be the best way to describe the abusive relationship between Jade West, or—if you prefer—Heather Fox, and Beck Oliver, as rhapsodised in the most perverse manner throughout teh canon of _Victorious_.

Like all musicals, this impending performance required auditions for a variety of r}oiles to be assigned. Some students went straight for the main rôles, while others preferred to go for minor jobs in order to reduce the expected amount of stress and efforts.

Heather Fox and Dolores Martinez had been suggested—about at the same time—by Erwin Sikowitz as the major canditates for the position of the dfemale star of the musical. This would have lead to a conflict within the se dormitory comrates, but, for the better or the worse, both of them had to resign early on, because they had been already booked for paid video shootings, just like Nina Martin. Ultimately, Sofia Michelle decided to split that rôle among several girls.

For example, Dolores Martinez was allowed to act as the star during the spoken scenes, whence she did not have to train singing; thus that little time little time left at her hands would not be wasted on fruitless attempts of improving her singing abilities—which she would take for granted in her dream known as the canon of _Victorious_.

Patricia Kirby, alias Samantha Puckett, alias Fawn Leibowitz, alias—you name it—was allowed to skate across the stage during some fast-paced singing scenes; not unexpected, she was definitely the one who was hardest to integrate into the rehearsals

But the main singing rôle was assigned to no other than multi-talented Leanne Carter; this way, she turned immediately into the focus of intense hatred of those girls who would have preferred to do that. Besides Patricia Kirby, this was especially the case for Brittanica Walsh; full of glowing envy, the latter would thereupon accuse Leanne of having cheated. Little did Brittanica know that the only ones to have cheated during this year were Nina Martin alias Dakota North and Heather Fox alias Jade West.

* * *

><p><strong><span>4:4 Sikowitz Rolls Down The Staircase<span>**

The première performance was over, and many of the students were looking already forward for their next projects and high-school time.

But Patricia Kirby and Britannica Walsh were still upset by the choice of the teachers, although only Patricia would react almost immediately.

A seemingly angry Patricia Kirby stepped up to Leanne Carter and accused insulted her in the most unspeakable manner which betrayed the perverted envy lowly humans often expose towards divine figures of light. She was therein applauded by Brittanica Walsh.

Leanne tried to calm down the furious attacker by quoting some pious words—but for no avail.

All of a sudden, Patricia Kirby leant in–as directed by some ghastly hands—to push Leanne down the staircase. Actually, she was under the influence of some hypnotic spell performed upon her previously by Jade West alias Heather Fox. For, notwithstanding all her rudeness, the proper Patricia Kirby was way too lazy to commit direct hard physical violence; whence we would not see her act this way in _Bad Girl_ or most other episodes featuring the same person under whatever name—barring the dreams known as the canon of _The iCarly Show_.

Heather had applied this mesmerising spell unto Patricia. The skill was the result of a combination of careful observation of the instructions made by Erwin Sikowitz, as a part of acting traing, and of misunderstood passages from books borrowed from Wilma Bassett's (alias Kreuftlva's) hideout. Neither on their own would have sufficed to produ ce this violent outcome, but Sikowitz' incompetence and Kreuftlva's tolerance were such a bad combination.

Leanne stumbled backward, but her fall was stopped because she hit Erwin Sikowitz, who had been alerted by the noise of the conflict between Leanne and Patricia; who, thereupon, had tried to intervene and to talk some sense—probably some more nonsense—into Patricia Kirby; but who had arrived only to see patient Leanne pushed right in front of his eyes. Leanne just bounce against Sikowitz, then against the railing, and she came to lie on one of the upper steps of the staircase; on the other hand, Sikowitz lost his balance, keeled over, and came rolling down the ramp, until the bottom of the flight of steps. His head hit the steps several times, causing him to lose most of his hair. Little did he understand that his lessons in the abuse of hypnosis were finally the source of what was about to happen to him.

* * *

><p><strong><span>4:5 Consequences Of The Brute Incident<span>**

Dolores Martinez had watched the accident from the railing close to her dormitory room; likewise, she had seen Jade West, in her darkest outfit, watch the same sceme from the opening of the door to their common dormitory room, plastering a treacherous diabolic smile. She knew that Heather had been the real culprit, although she could not exactly prove it; for nobody at the Broadway would have been able to believe that sweet Heather Fox and dark Jade West were but twop faces of the same person. Truth said, even if she had been able to convince Principal Deanne of the culpa of Heather Fox, she would not have done so due to her unworldly fears of Jade West's diabolic wrath. She had finally figured that Jade West was not just a theatre rôle, but a secret second identity of Heather Fox.

In any case, Dolores was unable to talk about it, whence she could not help but remain forever silent; even more, she felt urged to leave this place where her scary memories would never have left her mind in peace. Thus, for a long time to come, no one barring Dolores would ever come to know about the two faces of the same girl.

Given that Dolores was still aiming for fame and glory as an actress, Los Angeles was the best place to look for an exile. While the school of _Victorious_ is one made up by her fantasy, there were many schools in the city of broken dreams dedicated especially to the education of future professionals working in the Hollywood scene, but this was not the way to go. On the one hand, her parents were still convinced that acting was not a rock-solid profession, and, in virtue of their daughter's perfect bilingual skills, should have aimed for a career as a teacher for migrants from Latin America; on the other hand, another acting school would not have distracted her thoughts enough from the scary and uncanny memories of Broadway Academy. As a good comp[romise, they chose a preparatory school near Los Angeles that was known to be great for all sorts of future careers: Pacific Coast Academy, about which they had already been able to gather lots of great informations due to the connections mentioned a few sections earlier. And this way, her life would take the turn—at least superficially—sketched in the canon of _Zoey 101_; but, in the end, there was no way to get rid of Jade West for good.

Remorseless Heather West was in no way touched by the consequences of the onslaught upon the life of Leanne Carter, followed by the head damage of Erwin Sikowitz. As already sketched, she would be able to continue as before, powered by the diabolic forces of Beck Oliver. Little did she know that Beck would turn more and more greedy and demanding—both physically and emotionally; but she would not have cared, notwithstanding any unfavourable circumstances. It had been easy for her to use Patricia as a tool, given that the latter obviouslky hated the pious pacifist to the death, whereas Heather was still believed by everyone as unable to express such an amount of hatred in a violent manner.

Patricia Kirby—or whatever name you prefer for her—was thereupon expelled by Principal Deanne, who had always had difficulties finding her useful as a loan model for commercial advertising, due to her abrasive demeanour. Although Patricia had hitherto never acted in a way that caused physical damage unto her fellow pupils and teachers—she would even never do so on her own—, she had been expected to do so by most of those who knew her—or at least pretended to do so. This was especially the case for Marissa Benson, who had always sensed that she would wake up one day with Miss Kirby's knife in her back—or worse—; whence Marissa was the main proponent of an immediate and severe punishment of the rude and insane girl. Alas, her expulsion meant that she would just continued her abrasive work somewhere else; and, much to the very dismay of Dolores Martinez, thise _somewhere else_ meant nothing but Pacific Coast Aacademy, until she would conflict with Zoë brooks and be sent to the youth borstal at **Ridgeway** near Los Angeles, a prison school known to the careful viewer of _Zoey 101_ from the episode _Disk Golf_. Of course, about everyone familiar with _The iCarly Show_ knows that the school hosting many nevents of the show's canon is also called _Ridgeway_; which, once more, makes a lot of sense as it is but Patricia Kirby's dream.

On the other hand, Leanne Carter rejected sueing Patrricia to the authorities, and she would refuse to make statements, because she believed firmly in turning the other cheek, and she insisted correctly in the fact that Patricia did not know what she had been doing. On the other hand, Leanne had never been keen on the whole commercial mania started by Principal Deanne, whence she would withdraw from Broadway, anyways.

Likewise. Dolores Martinez would refrain from telling anyone at Pacific Coast Academy that Patricia Kirby was the immediate culprit of the incident, because she knew who was really responsible.

Sikowitz would recover from his injuries, barriung the loss of his hair, which would be permananent, as seen in the dreams of Dolores.

The administration had not yet learned anything, though: The business would go on as usual, leading to some kind of a Ponzi scheme in the sense that, in order to satisfy the financial expoectations of the old sponsors, more and more new sponsors had to be found and to be deceived about the real prospects of the whole venture. The girls being scared by the accident did not help, as many of them would screw up their jobs and make successful advertising almost impossible. One of the few girls able to continue as usual was Heather Fox—due to her double life.


	5. After Junior Prom

**Chapter 5 After Junior Prom**

* * *

><p><strong><span>5:1 Chase's Immediate Departure<span>**

It is now time for a jump of three years, the end of the canon of _Zoey 101_, which coincided—or so we figured—with Zoey's night of junior prom, as presented in _Chasing Zoey_. Note that the title of the episode does not really describe its content—rather, it is a summary of all four seasons, which is thought to come to a conclusion during this double-episode. The ingenuous watcher of _Zoey 101_ is possibly content, but the wary onlooker notices that everything is wrong, and nothing is appropriate at all. Dolores' nightmare known as the canon of _Victorious_ has been dreamed. and the Latino diva is not yet over it.

We will have to explain this impression step for step, but for the time being, it suffices to point out why Chase Matthews' quest of conquering the heart of Zoë Brooks can't be considered as accomplished. The not-so-infantile viewer will remember that Zoë Brooks had had a perverse relationship with some **James Garrett** throughout season four, although she had already promised Chase to wait for him. Granted, they granted some degree of freedom unto each other, but this did hardly—or at least not necessarily—extend to secret candle-light-dinners off the campus, mail messages with dubious contents, and the offer to spend part of the summer break together on some dreamy beach in the middle of the pacific Ocean; additionally, Miss Brooks had accepted a locket containing a love declaration from James, and she had not returned it unto her suitor until breaking up their relationship—for little or no explicit reason whatsoever! Chase Matthews is not known to have been informed about this adulterous mistake, whence it is not clear how he would react upon this revelation.

Likewise, during the absence of Chase Matthews, the blond Miss perfect and her other friends had reconciled with **Vincent Blake**, the bully athlete who had once been expelled from Pacific Coast Academy for applying brutal violence to Chase Matthews, who had previously convicted him of cheating in an academic test. There is little to no reason to assume that Chase would forgive the same murderous onslaught for no good reason; whence the wary reader will readily assume that there would be some conflict as soon as Chase notices the change of his friends' attitude towards his vile and remorseless torturer.

Finally, the whole attitude of Chase Matthews towards Zoë West had been a bit confusing, when watched over the course of the four years of the canon. This is especially the case for their sophomore year, where Chase has started courting other girls, including no other than Rebecca alias Trinidad Vega. Likewise, the canon does not tell us whether Chase had indulged in any equally adulterous affair during his time in the United Kingdom, for he had just appeared, from the middle of the land of nowhere, towards the end of the last episode, with no explanations whatsoever; after all, the only thing we get to hear from Dan Schneider's tale is the fact that Chase Matthews had admitted to the insane degree of his feelings towards Zoë Brooks only in a desperate moment when she seemed to have been lost for him; and this was more or less just stating what had been obvious already during the first two seasons.

But the reader will ask how all this is relevant to the previous chapters, especially the life of Dolores and Heather at Broadway Academy; and he should rest assured of the fact that all three points were more or less influenced by the impressions Dolores had received from her common life with Heather alias Jade, although it is—for the time being—only partly understandable.

* * *

><p><strong><span>5:2 The Vicious Games Of Dolores Martinez<span>**

* * *

><p><strong><span>5:2:1 Setting Up Zoë And Chase<span>**

We continue by reporting that Chase's return to Pacific Coast Academy was just a temporary visit, and he needed to return to London not much thereafter, for the academic year was not yet over, and he needed to arrange the necessary transcripts. This limited time was not even hardly enough for Chase in order to notice what had been going on in his absence; whence Chase and Zoë were only able to agree on meeting during the summer break for the common trip to **Maui**, an island on the Pacific archipelago of **Hawaii**.

Let us now examine the point involving Trinidad Vega, the remote relative of Dolores Martinez. As mentioned earlier above the road, Dolores and Trinidad had only acted as previously complete strangers, although this had been by no means the case; thence the wary ready will ask for the reasons of this weird game. OK, we also remember that Dolores had come to Pacific Coast Academy with the intention of helping Chase to get Zoë, but this enterprise had been a bit awkward. Dolores had supposed that letting Chase court other girls would provoke Zoë's raging jealousy, whence she had sent a few girls his way—for exactly the same purpose. Her first envoy had been no other than Trisha Kirby, the bad girl that had followed her from New York to California; which would have worked well if **Dustin Brooks**, the little brother of the Miss Perfect, had not behaved differently from what Dolores had envisioned. Ever since, Dolores had avoided Dustin as much as possible; but this is a different story altogether and completely unrelated to Heather alias Jade.

After Patricia Kirby, Dolores offered herself as a bait in order to render Zoë jealous; at the same time, she practised making out with a boy as uncomely as Chase Matthews—which would be important for her acting career. Alas, Chase was unable to maintain his fake relationship with Zoë, which would have been necessary in order to make the Miss Perfect admit to her hidden feelings for Chase. The reason for this failure was simply that Lola and Zoey had been friends for several months already, and using a common friend in order to make the charming girl jealous did not seem right in the eyes of both Lola and Chase.

Having learned from the former examples, Dolores Martinez had decided to script the next attempt in advance—which was easy due to Chase's abilities as a great playwright. In addition, she decided to go for a bait that had hitherto been unbeknown to Zoë, videlicet: Trinidad Rebecca Vega! Even Quinn Pensky got involved, because the fledgling scientist had been equally annoyed by the hidden emotions separating and linking Zoë Brooks and Chase Matthews. Unfortunately, the realisation of the script had been incomplete because Nicole Bristow, another actress in this vicious play, had left Pacific Coast Academy without prior notification—a gap impossible be filled.

On the other hand, we have to wonder why Dolores had chosen two girls from her uncanny past in order to make Zoë jealous? The reason was simply the fact that she had come to know the skills and abilities of those two girl, and she had thus been able to estimate the effect that they had on the charming Miss Perfect. More or less, they were just examples of girls Zoë Brooks would never have wanted Chase to date. Granted, Lola had never given up and thrown more girls as baits onto Chase Matthews, including the last and successful example: **Gretchen**. But those had all been poorly planned attempts, as Dolores had not been familiar in advance with the girls' abilities. Well, using Gretchen had finally worked well, but not in the way Lola had expected to; more precisely, it was finally Chase who had broken out into confessing to Zoë, not—as envisioned—vice versa.

So Dolores had actually achieved what she had been up to since seeing the video-clip of the school play written by Chase for Zoë, and it had taken her about three years, but we have to ask ourselves why the Latino diva had stayed motivated for this long time. Summing it up, she saw therein some good acting practice, and she knew that Heather Fox, alias Jade West, would never have given up such a project, but she would have prevailed at ease; whence Lola was desperately aiming to be even better than her former dormitory comrade of three years.

* * *

><p><strong><span>5:2:2 The Quest For The Prom Crown<span>**

Next, we move on to the dirty reconciliation with Vincent Blake, bully and womaniser of the worst sort. Most viewers of _Zoey 101_ know that Lola was yearning for relationships with good kissers, or what she and the other shallow-minded girls on the campus deemed _hot boys_. Now we remember that Lola's prototype of a boy of this kind was no other than Beck Oliver, the boyfriend of Heather Fox alias Jade West, and that the Latino girl did indeed envy her former dormitory comrade for that consort. She did not know about the diabolic hypostasis of Beck, but she would not have cared anyways due to her blind endeavour of being the greatest Hollywood actress of all, expecting an Oscar at the age of nineteen—and before Heather. Seeing Heather and Beck, Dolores was of course obsessed with the thought of being better in this respect; this, as expected, meant that she needed to secure for herself a boyfriend that possessed the same qualities as Beck—and even in a more impressive manner.

Vincent Blake, as the celebrated star quarterback of the school's football team, was of course belonging to the category of boys she was watching out for; for that avail, he had been targeted by Dolores since the day when he was first (at the beginning of Dolores' year as a sophomore) presented to the students of Pacific Coast Academy as the new quarterback of the promising football team. Dolores was secure in the knowledge that, as a successful football star's girlfriend, she would doubtlessly be voted prom queen; which, as the prom events at Pacific Coast Academy were regularly reported in California's greatest broadcasting networks, was paramount to increasing her own fame and popularity far beyond the gates of the illustrious boarding school.

Unfortunately for her plans, Vincent Blake had been expelled from Pacific Coast Academy for the previously mentioned case of bullying and cheating, even before she had come anywhere near realising her plan—obviously because she had not been fast enough in approaching the master athlete.

Of course, the easiest way to do so would have been that of becomming a member of the school's cheerleader squad, which had become more and more important since the opening of the school for girls; but Dolores knew—or at least learned fast enough—that cheer-leading required not only good looks and a sweet smile—which were her undisputed strengths—, but also hard physical practice beyond simple dancing and stepping, and—even more—orchestrated teamwork—much more than was desirable for a self-obsessed diva and drama queen. But Dolores was not only forced to manage without the cheerleaders' bonus—she was also forced to outshine and trump all those girls, especially **Amanda Franklin**, who is mentioned in _Chasing Zoey_ as _Make-out Mandy_, but who is also seen in the episode _Football_ of Daniel Schneider's _Drake & Josh_—a nightmare by Paige Howard as **Megan Parker**.

Ar first glance. the expulsion appeared deadly for Lola's plans, but it actually helped her a lot. On the other hand, she was not able to admit—at least openly—to her friends that she was coveting Vincent—notwithstanding his evil deeds. Using her supreme acting skills, the Latino drama queen had been perfectly able to hide her plans with Vince (and her deprecation of Chase for his deed of denouncing the bully and mean cheater) from Zoë, Chase, and their other friends. Indeed, she still needed the—admittedly fake—friendship with Zoë in order to reap more popularity, and Chase's skills as a playwright in order to get some plays written especially for the purpose honing her acting skills.

During the term breaks, however, Lola approached–unnoticed by Zoey—Vince; thereupon, she taught him some basic acting skills—enough for being able to convince everyone of having forgiven Chase and being now a globally nice guy—which, of course, he was not. The diva and the bully worked now together on a plan in order to make Chase pay for his treason, whence Vince would promise to be Lola's official boyfriend for the proms.

The school's administration had swallowed the bait, complete with hook, like, and sinker; whereupon Vince Blake was allowed back on the campus; here, Lola had initially feigned to hate him for his evil deeds, but then she acted—seemingly convinced by his reformed character—as if she had forgiven him. Following Lola's—fake—example, Zoey, Quinn, Logan, and Michael had also reconciled with the mean bully. This return and reconciliation had taken place during Chase Matthews' absence, and he had not been notified by anyone about all these events. And now Lola had achieved her goal of being elected prom queen, along with all the public attendance triggered by this award. She and Vince were now looking forward to seeing Chase all isolated, without friends who had all switched to Vince's side. Chase was no longer useful ,for the aspiring actress, because she had already extended her own social network—including more and more acquaintances much more powerful than a skilled yet barely known playwright.

* * *

><p><strong><span>5:2:3 Jade Stays In Control<span>**

We have talked about Dolores Martinez being motivated by t6he desire of trumping her former dormitory comrade at Broadway Academy; but, at the same time, we stated that Lola did everything in order to avoid any thought about Heather Fox. This contradiction is eliminated by declaring that the Latino beauty was not really aware of her desire for the purpose of trumping Heather alias Jade, or of the deep fascination she had come to feel of the second nature of the former ingenuous country peach. This, of course, made Dolores Martinez a mindless vehicle of her unknown will.

But now we have only talked about Dolores' view; whence it is in order to wonder whether Jade alias Heather knew anything about the new life of her former dormitory mate, and whether she even cared. Stated plainly, Heather Fox had never stopped watching the steps of her rival as far as only possible, even since there separation upon the end of middle-school; but how had she been able to do so from afar?

Fact is, Heather Fox had thrown spies upon Dolores, one by one. This started with no other than their common friend—if it is indeed appropriate to say so—Patricia Kirby, who reported back unto Heather on a regular base. Dolores had not trusted Patricia alias Fawn alias Samantha—or whatever name—, but she had not expected Heather to have the courage to use her again. After the expulsion of the aspiring black ninja from Pacific Coast Academy, Heather sent others, human and demon alike, onto the campus of Pacific Coast Academy in order to retrieve information and to manipulate Dolores.

**Sarah Kyla**—for example—appeared on the campus in the middle of the sophomoric year of Dolores and her friends. The wary readers know her as Sarah from _Silver Hammers_, but also as Kyla from _True Jackson VP_'s episode _Flirting With Fame_. She was really—as seen from her appearance in _True Jackson VP_—a bodyguard for young stars, especially aspiring stars of the entertainment business; as such, she had been hired by the hosts of some event as a guard for Heather West; thence those girls had spent a lot of time together, and Heather hypnotised her guard in order to get her to spy Dolores. Unfortunately, Heather had not known in advance that Sarah and Quinn had shared a—however quite short—common past. As seen in above episode, both of them had once participated in a pageant together, and Quinn was still embarrassed by her uncomely past as a majorette. For this reason, Heather had been compelled to withdraw Sarah sooner than expected.

Both Sarah and Patricia were humans, but Heather alias Jade had also conjured demons and sent them the way of Dolores Martinez and her school comrades; some of these creatures of the dark had made it into the canon of _Zoey 101_, albeit not revealed as those; yet all of them were on a mission of provoking Lola into working harder and harder, ignoring any obstacles and her own subsequent loss of sanity.

The last of the list of demons in Heather's service had been previously mentioned James Garrett, also known as Jake Crendle from one of Patricia Kirby's dreams. James enters the canon as late as in _Rumors Of Love_, but the wary viewers of _Zoey 101_ will remember the same face already from one cameo presence in _Quarantine_; likewise, this presence also shows up occasionally in _Ned__'__s Declassified School Survival Guide_, _Drake & Josh_, and _Unfabulous_; from this, we conclude that there is something extremely fishy.

Officially, Logan and Michael find out about the past of James Garrett from some inter-web site of a former school of James Garrett, located in Santa Fé, state of New Mexico. But, as everyone should know, sites can be faked by professionals, and in the case of James Garrett, this professional had worked on the behalf of no other than Jade West alias Heather Fox.

Making it short, James Garrett alias Jake Crendle was nothing but a demon sent forth by Jade West in order to spy on Dolores Martinez, but he had got an even more explicit mission, and this one involved the locket rendered unto Zoë Brooks in _Chasing Zoey_. Like many amulets, the artefact possessed mysterious powers, bestowed by the agency of the dark rituals performed by Jade West.

So Heather alias Jade was not only informed about the efforts of utterly clueless Dolores Martinez, she even deliberately instigated her former dormitory mate into doing about everything in order to trump Heather. This way, she tried to achieve that the Latino diva would—sooner or later—be consumed completely by her ambitions—and to sink therefore in a quagmire of paranoia and despair.

* * *

><p><strong><span>5:3 The Announce<span>**

* * *

><p><strong><span>5:3:1 Hiring Zoë As A Guide For Heather<span>**

The day after Chase's fast departure, Zoë Brooks was called into the office of Dean Rivers, where she was not only expected by the headmaster, but also by **Adolf H. Bradford**, the conservative and autocratic landlord of Pacific Coast Academy.

Viewers of _Zoey 101_'s episode _Prankweek_ will remember that this lord (albeit only known by his family name) had been adamantly opposed to coeducation; that he had been so close to expelling girls, especially Miss Brooks, for being sassy, a danger for the general order and discipline on the campus; and that only a perverse trick by Logan Reese had reversed his decision. Zo"e Brooks remembered those days, whence she feared that a lot of trouble was ahead, possibly tantamount to another verdict of expulsion. Therefore, upon entering the office, Zoë started excusing herself formally and devoutly for any trouble she had potentially caused during the last years, although she did not know exactly why.

But Bradford had not come in order to expel Miss Brooks; quite the contrary, Rivers and Bradford had got a job for Zoë Brooks to be done during the following academic year.

Bradford announced that Heather Fox, whom he described as a rare and valuable example for all young girls to live up to, was going to spend a few days on the campus; this presence would be necessary in order to shoot a few commercial video-clips for various sponsors of the Pacific Coast Academy. We remember that Miss Brooks had already been in charge with guiding Paige Howard through her days on the campus; this task, according to Rivers and Bradford, had been accomplished perfectly by Zoë, and thence Bradford saw no need to look any further. But he emphasised that the impending presence of the model girl, the shining star of thw western coast, was even more important for the school and the board of sponsors.

The docile and patient country girl satisfied the rôle of a perfect young woman according to the fascist ideology of Adolf H. Bradford. Of course, the overlord of Pacific Coast Academy was as clueless about her double-life as about everyone else.

Likewise, Zoey felt flattered for the confidence of the big boss, whence she was now looking forward to performing her freshly assigned task; thereupon, she would now go and tell the news about the impending arrival of the star of the western coast all over the campus, and especially into the ears of her friends, whom she expected to share her excitement and her joy.

* * *

><p><strong><span>5:3:2 Informing Lola And Quinn<span>**

Seeing Zoey's smile, Lola and Quinn expected some great and joyful news; but, as the reader will assume, this was not exactly the case.

Especially Dolores Martinez felt like hit by a huge lead block when she heard the name _Heather Fox_, and that straight from the lips of Zoë Brooks; but instead of exhibiting the panic that she felt inside, Lola was able to control herself enough to moderate her shock, acknowledging that these were _really nice_ news.

Zoë sensed that her Latino friend was talking with some trace of sarcasm in her voice, but she did not understand it, and she emphasised that Dolores would be able to learn a lot from her famous colleague. On the other hand, she was accustomed to Dolores' occasional professional envy with respect to young actresses with even more success. For that avail, Zoey refrained from digging any deeper, and she hoped that things would go much better once Heather was really on the campus. Lola acknowledged the words of the Miss Perfect with a forced—but convincing—smile.

Of course, many of Lola's plans for the upcoming academic year were now in danger of being overthrown upon whim, and she would have to reconsider. For that avail, she needed to inform Vincent Blake as soon as possible, although she was not yet willing to share her knowledge about the secrets of Heather Fox, alias Jade West, with anyone—not even with her —fake as he was—boyfriend. Lola hated sweating, but the approaching visit of her former dormitory comrade drove drops of hot sweat all over her beautified skin. Vince would surely have noticed, had not all those cosmetic products applied by Dolores—and presented by Heather Fox—had been able to over the transpiration..

Quinn Pensky had originally not been interested in expressions of perversity such as pedicure; as a conclusion, we have to, if we see her be keen on those signs of decadence, assume that her change in this topic was due to the impact of diabolic forces; and indeed, those had been at work during her life on the campus, and especially since third season—whence she shared a room with Zoë Brooks and Dolores Martinez. The culmination of this foul degeneration was her ongoing relationship with Logan Reese, established a few episodes earlier, but only made aware unto Zoë, Michael, and Dolores during prom night—or so it seems. As a consequence in her increased interest in outfits and cosmetic products, she had started to watch commercial video-clips more and more often, including those featuring Heather Fox. So, she was now basically ready to talk to Heather about the chemical composition of cosmetic products, as she had performed a lot of research. In addition, the sponsors responsible for the upcoming shootings were—at least in part—actual or potential clients of Quinn Pensky's research activities. We will take a closer look at those sponsors during the following chapters; whence, for the time being, it is enough to establish the fact that Quinn had even been enrolled at Pacific Coast Academy because certain enterprises had needed her services, and they were willing to pay for her equipment and ingredients; those enterprises, as the reader has probably guessed, were major sponsors of the boarding school as well.

So, what were the dark desires of Quinn Pensky that had caused her downfall and the corruption of her soul? We remember from _Silver Hammers_ that Quinn had not discovered—or so she states—her love for science until the age of seven, id est after her recorded past as a pageant girl. More precisely, she had thereupon discovered that her goal was intellectual world domination, and not just the increase of knowledge. Genius and curiosity were, therefore,not enough for the chosen goal; rather, world domination in any sense required powerful contacts with people in charge of the public affairs; consequently, in a society ruled by capitalist and imperialist interests, Quinn needed to support of those able to pay for her ambitions, and those who were in charge with the global telecommunication systems needed in order to transport her messages all over the world; and who, other than Logan Reese, appeared more suited for such an enterprise?

All this already outlines a few similarities between Heather Fox' quest to become the most successful super-model of the world, and that of Quinn pensky to dominate the world by means of intellectual; superiority. But did this mean that Quinn Pensky had equally used obscure means in order to make her dream come true? And, even more, was there a possibility for Heather's and Quinn';s interests to clash in near future? For the time being, Quinn was able to see the bright side of Heather's impending presence, but she did not know everything she would have needed to know…

* * *

><p><strong><span>5:3:3 Notifying Michael And Logan<span>**

Michael Barrett was the last of Dolores' old friends to hear the news about the impending visit of the fabulous star model; this he heard from the mouth of a blathering Zoë Brooks, and in the company of his—according to the canon's verdict—girl-friend **Lisa Perkins**. Really, the whole relationship was nothing but a big joke, given that an eternal coward, such as Michael Barrett, was out of the league of an aspiring star of the spotlight, such as Lisa Perkins.

Michael had watched a lot of commercial video-clips featuring heather Fox, and he was a great fan of her—to the degree of making Lisa appear jealous due to his enthusiasm for another girl. But, actually, this jealousy was nothing compared to the real chasm between Lisa and Michael, one that had been torn long ago. We do not have to go into the details of the apparent incompatibility of Michael and Lisa, but we have to wonder whether the aspiring pop princess had really come into the life of the soul flautist by natural incidence.

Of course, the ingenuous viewer will say that Michael had saved—in the episode _Michael Loves Lisa_—the life of the girl. But this is pointless, and Patricia Kirby gets it right in her dream, known as _The iCarly Show_'s episode _iSaved Your Life_; therein, she comments correctly that Carlotta Shay, after seeing her life saved by Fredward Benson, is falsely under the impression of owing him her love in return. Truly spoken, this has nothing to do with love, but with an insane addiction and corruption of the soul. Further,—unlike Fredward benson—Michael Barret does not have the excuse of having been one of Carlotta Shay's friends for several years; rather, the pop star popped up in his life all of a sudden during a running academic year, virtaully out of nowhere. The wary reader will notice that there was something excessively fishy; thus it should not be considered a surprise that—once more—Jade West alias Heather Fox is involved.

The careful watcher of _Chasing Zoey_ should remember mystery man **Mr. Takato**, an elderly person of Japanese ethnicity who popped up from nowhere after Michael Barret was stuck in problem with his manually switched automobile; who taught Michael, with methods reminding us of the zen school of Buddhism, to drive such a vehicle correctly; whose existence was not believed by any of Michael's friends whom Michael had talked about; and who, when asked by the soul musician to reveal himself unto his doubting comrades, refused to do so, claiming his own non-existence. So it is necessary to ask: Who was Mr. Takato really, and was he connected to the dark arts of Jade West?

Finally, Logan Reese was notified by his—falsely so-called—girlfriend, and he started torturing uncomely Quinn by making remarks about the hot looks of Miss Fox. Needless to say, Quinn was struck by jealousy, which—more properly—was nothing but the fear of getting cut off the monetary resources she needed for claiming patents for her own inventions. But what impact would Heather Fox really have on Logan Reese and Quinn Pensky? You will see this once the star-model has arrived for her visit on the campus.

* * *

><p><strong><span>5:4 Jade Slides Into A Dilemma<span>**

Heather Fox had not chosen the setting for the upcoming series of commercial video-clip; rather, the decision had been made by those paying for the event, which were certain sponsors promoting their products, as seen later down the road; in addition, the star-model had been informed about the impending production by aforementioned Dale Squires, who would also direct those scenes.

While Heather Fox had always been able to feign being nice to Squires, she was still not content with many of his decisions made on the site; as a result, she had—much more than once in her career—manipulated the respective managers of the production into revising Squires' uncomely decisions, allowing Heather to get the projects done the way she intended to. And, while not knowing the reasoning of those who decided in favour of the Pacific Coast Academy, Heather's feelings were split.

On the one hand, Heather would have loved to make it in person to the site of Pacific Coast Academy in order to see Dolores suffer in person and screw up for good; on the other hand, this would have worked only as long as Jade had been in full command of her dark abilities.

During the last years, Jade's rituals of summoning Beck Oliver had been the key of her career, but during the last weeks, she had started feeling that she was tiring; even more, she felt to run out of power, being unable to maintain her double-life for much longer. The tributes—both those of a physical and those of an emotional nature—requested by beck Oliver had grown more and more, causing Jade's (Heather's) inner nervousness to grow steadily. Her mentor since her start of her double-life, Kreuftlva, had finally stopped taking responsibility for Jade's transgression of the basic instructions,; whence she withdrew herself more and more from Jade's life, and just told her to stop it—alas, without telling her how to. But Heather alias Jade would not have been interested in those detailed instructions, anyways, as she still believed that the tattoo would protect her. How long would she be able to keep on living in this hallucination?

We have already mentioned the Ponzi-scheme in the world of business, and now Heather (Jade) was up to applying the same thing to the world of the commerce with the dark lifeforms; which means that she wanted to deal with more and more new demons in order to find the force to satisfy the requests with Beck Oliver—and a few other demons—she was dealing with in order to keep up her success and her popularity. And as we know, this kind of business, similar to chain letters, may only work as long as there are new—and ridiculously ingenuous—investors available, and that they crash badly once this potential is exhausted; usually, the revelation of such a scheme tends to be tantamount to a huge scandal.

The greatest of all star-models—according to the judgment of the masses—was now facing the fact that there was no way to avoid diving into the adventure of visiting Pacific Coast Academy without explicitly consenting with a downgrade of her career, while she was more and more aware of the unpredictable dangers of accepting the sudden challenge; so, quo vadis, Heather Fox?


	6. Heather Comes To PCA

**Chapter 6 Heather Comes To PCA**

* * *

><p><strong><span>6:1 Return Of The Students<span>**

This was the senior year of Zoë Brooks and her (falsely so-called) friends , so the knew they would not have to go through the painful procedure ever again. Chase Matthews and Zoë Brooks had spent a few weeks together don the archipelago, but they had refrained from talking about their life, past and future, on the campus; instead, they had indulged in the usual perverse sensual pleasures shallow-minded people of their generation are so proud of; so, in particular, they had refused to talk about the important things mentioned in the previous chapter, but postponed them to the impending senior year.

As expected, Chase would have a lot to tell his comrades about his time spent in the heart of the United Kingdom; this life has not been covered at all by the canon, but the previously mentioned short experiences of Nina Martin alias Dakota North should make the reader expect that Chase Matthews had come across something similar. This was indeed the case, although the details have to be postponed until somewhat later down the road; but, for the time being, it is necessary to remark that Chase had been scared so much by them that he was not able to talk about those in the presence of Zoë or Michael, whence his reports about his life in London were replete with ellipses and—more or less embarrassing—lapsus; these should have provoked the curiosity of his acquaintances, but the latter were accustomed to Chase's general awkwardness.

On the other hand, Michael Barret was not yet able to tell Chase about his most embarrassing moments of the last year, and especially not about the presence of mystery man Takato . Clearly, Chase was curious to hear from Michael about his adventures in California during his days across the mighty Atlantic, and so he nervously asked a lot of question, but he received only equally evasive answers.

So far, Chase had not yet noticed how the attitude of his former friends (if they had ever been anything like that) towards his nemesis Vincent Blake; but this would change right in the moment when he spotted Dolores Martinez and Vince Blake cross the campus, hand in hand, and with a perverted smile on the face. Granted, he had already seen them in a similar way during the short visit upon the night of prom,; but, on the other hand, he had deemed this impression a hallucination facilitated by the so-called **jet-lag**, or **circadian dysrythmia**, a frequent problem for people having travelled pretty fast from the west to the east (or vice versa). Now this was not the case, and he wondered whether he was seriously disturbed; as a reason for this problem, he considered his adventures in London, including the penetrating gaze of Corbierre, the previously mentioned stuffed raven. Indeed, he had been influenced in more than one way by this unnatural gaze, but he was not hallucinating about Vince and Lola.

The same problem would occur a few moments later, when he saw Quinn Pensky and Logan Reese committing perverse activities in some silent corner; once more, he could not help but accusing Corbierre of what he deemed a hallucination. Of course he could have asked Michael or Zoey for confirmation and clarification; but, as the arrival of Heather Fox was near, neither of them had got the time needed for answering Chase's questions. Michael Barret was at least able to tell Chase, who had not yet been informed, about the looming visit of Heather Fox; he was excited because he wanted to sneak an autograph off the star-model while he could. Chase did not hesitate sharing his comrade's excitement, thus postponing any questions he could have about the visions of Lola and Vince, or of Quinn and Logan.

Zoë Brooks, on the other hand, was more busy preparing the model's arrival than anyone else, whence she had not got any time to talk to her so-called friends about anything whatsoever. This was especially annoying for Dustin, the little brother of the Miss Perfect, who felt more and more isolated and left behind by the one who had promised to be his guidance through the rough times of middle-school.

* * *

><p><strong><span>6:2 The Big Moment<span>**

* * *

><p><strong><span>6:2:1 The Gathering<span>**

Dean Rivers and Lord Adolf Bradford had gathered the students on the campus in order to welcome the starlet, which also implied the need for a speech.

Bradford appealed in his usual authoritarian way to the discipline of his students, but this time, he was actually cheered by the mass of pupils; most of the students had hitherto not been aware of the big event, whence they turned totally enthusiastic withing the course of just a few seconds.

Finally, a limousine arrived in order to drop Heather Fox and Dale Squires for the official ceremony. In this moment, the parking site was already flooded by curious fans of the absolute star girl; as expected, Adolf Bradford was little pleased by the demeanour of the students, but he was able to tolerate it —or one reason or another.

Dale Squires was acquired by security guards who rudely instructed the fans to stay out of the star's way, but this did not really curb the enthusiasm of the masses.

Now it was also the right moment for the responsible representative of the sponsor of the whole event to show up.

* * *

><p><strong><span>6:2:2 Jake Savage And Qualitech<span>**

The watchers of the episode _Jet-X_ of _Zoey 101_ will remember **Jake Savage**; that he was an alumnus of Pacific Coast Academy; that he had been (already for a few years) the chief executive officer of **Qualitech**, an enterprise with its headquarters in Los Angeles; that he was a friend of **David Bender**, one of the most popular teachers at Pacific Coast Academy; and that he had used the students of Bender's classes as temporary employees for the public relations department of his enterprise. The very same Jake Savage was now here on the campus in order to introduce the project for whose promotion he had chosen to hire Heather Fox, and which was to be performed here on the campus of Pacific Coast Academy.

Qualitech was a typical sponsor of this most renowned boarding school, using the students both as cheap temporary employees and as deceived (current or future) customers; whence we would not go wrong by considering this relationship as the typical business model practised by the executive board of the supreme educational institution.

Once more, Mr. Bender was collaborating with his old comrade in the sense that he made one of his classes plan a commercial for a new product by Qualitech; unlike during the previously mentioned episode, however, the shooting of the scenes was left in the hands of the professionals hired by Qualitech; whence the students, divided into small teams of two or three, were only supposed to contribute the script for the commercial video-clip and to assist—if their script was chosen by Dale Squires—the production set.

The pupils supposed to compete were middle-school upper-class men, including especially Dustin Brooks, the little brother of Zoë. Needless to say, they were totally excited by the prospects of working together with the star and getting their efforts credited by Dales Squires. The product to be promoted was some new footwear, an improvement—or bug-fix—of those featured in _The iCarly Show_'s _iPromote Techfoots_. Originally, those shoes had been marketed by **Daka**, a shoe vendor also well-known from _Drake & Josh_'s _Really Big Shrimp_; but, due to their evident misbehaviour, Qualitech had been put in charge with correcting the faulty technology before re-marketing them. Some students on the campus had bought these bugged boots and been pretty disappointed, whence they were now particularly curious and critical. But the majority of students did not care about the product, only about the flagship of its promotion: Heather Fox, with whom they would be seen posing for an official picture. The winners of the contest would be, such as in the canonical precedence case, awarded with a sample of the new product, a pair of nano-technology boots hot. The official release of the product was planned for the summer to come; which meant that, until then, the winners would be among the few chosen ones to enjoy the new product.

But now it was Savage's time to give a long speech, introducing his company (unto those students not yet familiar with it) and his new projects.

* * *

><p><strong><span>6:2:3 Zoë Brooks Meets Heather Fox<span>**

And this was the moment when Zoey, the assigned guide of Heather during her her visit to the hallowed ground of Pacific Coast Academy, met the star-model for the very first time; not without reason, the Miss Perfect was terribly nervous in the presence of the celebrity.

Heather Fox had already heard a lot about Zoë Brook, but the latter was by no stretch aware of this fact; even more, Heather preferred to let Zoey rest in the superstitious belief that Heather had just heard a little bit about her. In fact, Heather had not only been very attentive when watching the video-clip recording Zoey's performance for the previously mentioned school play, but she had also gathered a lot of information about the perfect female student of Pacific Coast Academy from the reports delivered by Heather's spies that had roamed the campus in order to observe and manipulate the life and emotions of Dolores Martinez; and it should go without saying that Heather was little inclined to admit to having indulged in those entirely uncomely activities; rather, Heather was still working towards preserving her public image.

Both girls had—at least—in common that they were not friends of lengthy sermons, such as those to be delivered by Jake Savage, Dean Rivers, or Overlord Adolf Bradford; for that reason, they strayed and wandered the campus, with which Heather would—officially—have to familiarise herself. Needless to say, the latter had already acquired a huge amount of knowledge about the layout and the buildings of Pacific Coast Academy from her henchmen's reports.

Zoey expected a lot from her meeting with Heather, and it is now only appropriate to know mention a few of her hopes.

First, Zoë Brooks reveals her talent with respect to fashion design and creation throughout the canon, and especially in _Jet-X_, _Spring Fling_, _Backpack_, and _Miss PCA_; from there. few readers will be surprised by Zoë's intentions to go for a professional career in the world of fashion creation; now we know that Heather had been discovered originally as a model for fashion presentations, and that she was still hired a lot by fashion labels for those purposes; further, Heather needed to be outfit appropriately for each new public event, which also required design. But we should keep in mind that Zoë's talents were not restricted to just a few—quite the contrary! This made it not easy for her to make her choice, and so she hoped to find a way to peek into the scene; for this purpose, Heather's contacts to the scene were more than just helpful, they were a veritable launchpad for a career as a fashion designer. Zoey would have been particularly happy if she had had the opportunity to outfit Heather for one event, and then use this opportunity's outcome as a recommendation for future jobs as a designer. In her mind, Zoey already saw herself as the designer of the new official Heather Fox fan shirts, which—in her dreams—would conquer the cloth market for her generation in no time.

Next, we remember Zoë Brooks' motivations for participating in a pageant organised by Logan Reese in _Miss PCA_: There was an old rivalry, dating back to her days at elementary school, which still made Miss Brooks jump through hoops; Zoë's arch-nemesis was one **Katie Packerman**, into whose direction Zoey would have loved to send a message by being seen in a picture, on the cover of a popular journal for girls, side by side with Heather Fox, the shining star of the west. Clearly, the presence of the mass media during the shootings of the commercial video-clip would provide the occasion for such a plan, but Zoey was still a bit too optimistic.

But what was Heather Fox, provided with a plethora of information about Zoë Brooks, think about her? Well, the star-model had learned at least one important thing: Zoë Brooks was the life of Pacific Coast Academy (Note that the name derives from a Greek word meaning _life_!); that her so-called friends would have been completely lost and dispersed without Zoë's permanent interventions; that—or so concluded Heather—especially Dolores Martinez would have gone completely crazy and astray, had there not been Zoë's incessant attempts of saving the Latino diva's sanity; and that, as a conclusion, Heather just needed to distract Zoey in order to destroy Lola.

Indeed, sneaking James Garrett into Zoë's life had been the result of such a plan, but one that had not yet taken off the ground—at least not completely—due to Zoë's—virtually—improviso change of mind right before junior prom; as a consequence, Heather needed to use this occasion in order to complete her mission. But she needed to find the appropriate toys and tools for this avail, which means that she needed to use the right students in order to manipulate Zoë Brooks. In addition, Heather saw that Zoë was no longer wearing the amulet gifted by James Garrett, an artefact of—as Heather had understood—dubious powers. Nevertheless, Heather needed Z"e Brooks also in order to access what she considered as a potential source for new power, needed in order to extend the effect of Beck Oliver's work, id est to charm everyone into believing that she was nothing more but a simple Redneck peach. Of course, in order to be able to use Zoë Brooks in such a way, she needed to act accordingly, and—therefore—to funnel all her remaining force into this task.

* * *

><p><strong><span>6:2:4 The Speech Of Dean Rivers<span>**

Carl Rivers had been the headmaster of the academy for much longer than the period covered by the canon of _Zoey 101_, whence he had already seen many sponsors use it for its commercial campaigns. But this was the very first time in his career that such a campaign had been meticulously prepared and caused such a lot of ado. So, what was he thinking about the whole activity?

In _The Great Vince Blake_, we understand that he, the headmaster of this educational education, praised the sales of unhealthy snacks on the campus as extraordinarily profitable. the reason for this situation were long-term contracts of the school with the producers of those snacks, who belonged to the group of sponsors. From there, it is not hard to conclude that Dean Carl Rivers was not only tolerating those promotional activities, but he actively praised and supported them; this is remarkable because—in general—the headmaster was not a friend of mayhem and disorder, which were inevitably triggered by those promotional actions. Summing it up, the headmaster valued commercial advantage over the natural and proper purpose of educational institutions.

With this attitude, expressed by one of the leading forces of the administration of Pacific Coast Academy, it was little wonder that the students—at least in general—were misguided into succumbing to the values of egotism and imperialism.

The speech of the headmaster reflected his attitude, although he refrained from admitting to the poor example he was for his pupils. Even more, he emphasised that the tight splicing of education and business was for the pupils' advantage—and maybe he even believed it! For the students would of course have benefited from increasing donations made by the sponsors, had the administration of the school not been indulging in the same sort of Ponzi scheme as aforementioned Broadway academy—and even to some infinitely larger amount!

Summing it up, the Pacific Coast Academy needed more and more new sponsors in order to accomplish the expectations of the sponsors it already had; the board relied on the possibility that students of today would be the entrepreneurs or leading employees of important companies during the looming decades. This model had hitherto worked out pretty well, as best seen in the case of Jake Savage from Qualitech; but there were numerous other examples, as easily checked when taking a look at the guest list for the impending homecoming week.

* * *

><p><strong><span>6:2:5 Dolores And Vincent<span>**

After everything said in the last chapters, the reader will understand that Dolores Martinez had not been looking forward to this hour; and, even more, Lola's choice of trying to avoid an encounter with her rival appears somewhat justified. We remember how the Latino drama queen had already been hiding during the visit of André and Monique Chaumont, and the tide was much higher this time around.

One of Lola's worst fears was the possibility that Vincent Blake would trash her for Heather Fox, but she was already terribly disturbed by the possibility of Heather telling Vince too much about their common past in Upstate New York. For that reason, she had dragged Vincent along with herself. Although she understood that she was only using Vincent, and that the same thing worked vice versa, she could not help feeling jealous because it was so hard to get Vincent to refrain from taking a somewhat closer look at the star-model.

So, what did Vincent Blake feel during those hours? Briefly spoken, he was reminded of the days when he was new at Pacific Coast Academy and had incredibly fast become the star of the star of the school's American-style football team. On the other hand, Heather's fame had already been lasting for more than four years; whence Vince Blake, curious of the reasons for her unrestrained success, was up to trying to get her to share her recipe. This was a plan that he could not share with Dolores, because he did not dare confessing that he considered Heather as a more successful and gifted star than the former; consequently, he needed to consult the star-model secretly, escaping from the Latino diva's attention.

We know that Vincent Blake fame had been very short-lived, because he had been caught cheating by Chase Matthews. So what had compelled the master athlete into committing that intellectual fraud? Well, like most self-respecting schools, the Pacific Coast Academy had got a rule that members of the athletic teams representing the schools needed to upkeep a certain minimum level in the academic subjects; which insured that academic success was not inhibited by the additional time needed for athletic practice, at the cost of missing out on homework and even scheduled classes. But many members of the popular athletic teams were not really gifted with sufficient intellectual abilities; therefore, they needed to resort to some sort of cheating. This fact was pretty much well-known among the students, teachers, staff members, and administrators of the illustrious boarding school; even more, it was unofficially tolerated by the system. As an example, most teachers left the scripts for impending tests in some semi-secret places, just for the athletes to copy and pass the official requirements. The reasons for this secret tolerance was the value of the achievements of the athletic teams (especially the American-style football team) as a means of commercial publicity; of course, this value was one of the reason why sponsoring a school like Pacific Coast Academy was an attractive move for many enterprises. In turn, the academy was thus under the pressure of living up to increasing expectations in order to secure its monetary survival. Of course, this tolerance to cheating athletes was officially denied and condemned by Dean Rivers and his henchmen, for the school's administration needed to follow the official guidelines issued by the Californian department of education. As a consequence, the school's administration tried to feign ignorance as long as possible, but felt compelled to strike fast in the case that a scandal was otherwise deemed inevitable.

Vincent Blake had thus become the isolated victim of a scandalous case of established hypocrisy, and he feared that Heather would (sooner or later) run into a similar death trap; thence he felt the need to warn her in some way, even though remorseless Lola would not want him to help any of her close competitors for fame and glory.

* * *

><p><strong><span>6:3 The Curse Of Adolf Bradford And His School<span>**

Adolf Bradford had finally left the square where the orators had delivered their boring—at least in the eyes of most students—sermons. Smart watchers of _Prank Week_ remember that the same overlord, at the end of his canonical presence, had remarked that he believed that he was subject to some kind of curse. Leading up to this moment, the students had achieved saving Zoë and the girls in general from expulsion after desecrating the sculpture and the memory of **Napoléon Bradford**—the father of Adolf, and the founder of Pacific Coast Academy. Granted, Bradford looked just confused and upset, but he was totally right: there was a curse on the family of the Bradfords and their work, the most renowned of all Californian boarding schools.

The ingenuous watchers of _Zoey 101_ probably praise Logan Reese, the ringleader of the boys, for having done something nice—for the first time throughout the canon. He had incited the boys into desacrating the memory of the founder even more , and in a more perverse and disgusting way than that chosen previously by the girls, and thus made the lord believe that he would have had to expel all pupils in order to do justice. Granted, Adolf Bradford was a heartless fascist, but this did in absolutely no way justify the misdeeds of Logan Reese. In addition, Logan Reese's one and only motivation for—falsely so-called—acting nice was the very purpose of staying able to torture and abuse girls, such as Zoë Brooks, in the vilest and most decadent manner.

Schneider tries to fool the ingenuous viewers into believing that Bradford had to refrain from expelling Zoë Brooks because all students had been involved in the act of blasphemy, but the wary reader knows that only a few students had been actually involved. Among the regulars of the canon, at least Dustin Brooks and **Mark Del Figgalo** (the later boyfriend of Quinn Pensky for almost three seasons) were missing completely; likewise, the amount of students assembled in the scene had been much lower than the amount of students usually seen in filler scenes scanning the whole campus. This already suggests that the Pacific Coast Academy would not have lost too many students, had Bradford expelled those involved in the act of perversity. Further, the smart readers will remember _Anger Management_, where it is insinuated that Logan Reese was not expelled from Pacific Coast Academy because his father Malcolm Reese was one of the major sponsors of the illustrious educational institution.

But why had Pacific Coast Academy come to depend to such a degree on the family of Logan Reese, the one student who—said in a sarcastic manner—convinced constantly by means of his excessively perverse misdemeanour? And why was there no way for Malcolm Reese to understand that his son was absolutely detrimental for the school he—at least according to what is suggested by his frequent donations—loved so much?

Now many a reader will wonder why all this has to be said instead of concentrating on Heather Fox' career; but the roots of the Pacific Coast Academy lie in its uncanny past and involved people like Napoléon Bradford who had passed away long since. In other word, a proper explanation requires diving into the world of the dead, a world to which Jade West alias Heather Fox had access. During the whole ceremony, Heather had sensed that there was something wrong in the history of the school and its founder, and she would curious enough to find out once the right moment had come—especially because she saw a potential source for extending her fading power.

The reader familiar with _The Curse Of PCA_ will remember the story of **Charles R. Galloway**, a student that had disappeared mysteriously about fifty years back in time. Dan Schneider tries to make the unwary viewers believe that Zoë Brooks and her friends had solved the case, but this is quite far from true; rather, the historical case of Chase Galloway is closely connected to the current calamities faced by Adolf Bradford and passed on to administration, staff, teachers, students, and their families.

* * *

><p><strong><span>6:4 Techfoots And Other Awkward Quinnventions<span>**

* * *

><p><strong><span>6:4:1 The Reasons For Quinn's Misery<span>**

Quinn Pensky had initially listened to the speech of Jake Savage, but she had turned consternated upon getting to know that the company was now marketing the techfoots; as an explanation for the shock, Quinn was no other than the original vendor of those useful yet dangerous boots, and she had sold her rights successfully to Daka. While Quinn's relationship to the techfoots is not testified in teh canon, it will come as little surprise to the regular viewers of _Zoey 101_, who are well-aware of the often awkward side-effects of a variety of **Quinnventions**, as the genius girl from Seattle baptises her inventions—according to _New Roomies_.

But what is the reason behind these repeated failures? Basically, Quinn Pensky is exposed to an immense and steadily increasing pressure from the hands of those who trust in her expertise, as they have already invested a lot into the service of research and development offered by Quinn; even more, her whole progress of engineering and science had started to hinge on the support from the hand of those sponsors. Little wonder, she was not able to withstand this pressure for good; consequently, her low short-term attention span, not uncommon for a true genius in the realms of mathematics and theoretical science, resulted in inadverted mistakes due to neglecting fairly banal details. This was even the case for services she offered to friends and colleagues without expecting any immediate award, because those deeds served for the purpose of improving her remown on the campus; and this renown attracted new potential commercial customers.

The failure of the techfoots had been one of many, but it had preceded the darkest decision of her life, the moment in which she deemed it necessary to start what she envisioned as a _long-term relationship with Logan Reese_, with the sole purpose of securing for herself a long-term source of monetary support for her future work.

Dan Schneider, however, tries to lionise Logan Reese, against his true and eternally constant nature exposed as early as in _Pilot_, as a white knight on his steed offering honestly the needed comfort for a desperate Quinn pensky after she had been left by Mark del Figgalo; this way, the maker of _Zoey 101_ seduces many unwary viewers of the show into supporting an inherently decadent and uncomely relationship known to many a reader as **Quogan**, comparable to **Bade**, a potemanteau for the relationship between Jade aand Beck. In order to justify the abolition of the former—hiwever not quite unproblematic—relationship betwinn Pensky and del Figgalo, the one-time character **Brooke Margolin** had to pop up in _Quinn Misses The Mark_, and little reason was given. The wary viewer of _Zoey 101_ notices immediately that there is something foul and fishy, although it is not quite obvious to make sense of it.

Anyways, Quinn Pensky, although appearing quite enthusiastic in her relationship, felt how her heart and sould were constricted and tormented by her fledgling relationship, just like a beartrap closing aroubd her foot, breaking bones, sundering sinues, squeezing veins, and worse. Watching Heather during the last years in video-clips, she supposed that Heather depended on Beck as Quinn herself depended on Logan; nevertheless, she did not notice yet that Heather was in any way feeling constricted; as a rfesult, Quinn was curious how Heather was able to live in such a degrading relationship, and she would try hard to interview the star-model and analyse her answers in a—as she would call it—scientific way.

Did the genius from Seattle deem it possible that Beck was a demon, and that Heather used her tattoo in order to exercise—in Quinn's eyes—successfully some control over Beck? _The Curse Of PCA_ will give us some answers, at least in the sense that Quinn was not completely hostile to the concept of the paranormal; however, she had tried hard to avoid any appeal to faith or religion, and she treated the problem at hand as something that could be solved completely by means of materialist or positive science. Ever since, Quinn appeared to have forgotten about the incidents occurring during that episode, whichj means that she was still the ingenuous rationalist that she had always been.

Now ,in spite of the parallels, there was one significant difference between Quinn and Heather: While Quinn was —or would have been—easily able to study the theoretical background of Heather's trade with the demons, she lacked the faith and devotion, as well as the courage to commit to the unusual; this was quite the opposite of Heather's (alias Jade's) approach.

The reader will have to wait for the actual confrontation of Heather and Quinn in order to figure whether there was a chance of a communication between these two zealous girls on a mission.

* * *

><p><strong><span>6:4:2 Quinn's Rivals<span>**

Of course, Quinn Pensky was not the one and only scientific genius on the campus—at least in a broader sense. In _Robot Wars_, we learn about **Wayne Gilbert** alias **Fire Wire**, a heartless intellectual with—according to Zoë's group—weird yet obscure side interests.

Until being beaten by Quinn and her robot, Wayne had been much more reliable and observant than his main competitor; whence, in virtue of Quinn's frequent failures, he had looked down arrogantly at her, deeming her a spaz. And now he envied Quinn even more, because she always seemed to get the attention necessary in order to make the contacts that were vital for advancing her career.

But there was a more important difference: Wayne Gilbert was not as much of a bare-bones rationalist or even positivist as the genius from Seattle; which was ultimately revealed in _Chasing Zoey_ by means of his adoration of the religious topics of dystopia and latter judgement appearing insinuated in his favourite graphic novels. But we also see him indulging in fantasy card games in the episode _Quinn Misses The Mark_—yet another form of symbolic representation of a deeply religious quest. As a consequence, Wayne was much more likely to understand the fact that Heather Fox was guided by demons; and, indeed, he saw immediately that there was something inherently wrong with Heather.

Many readers notice Wayne mindlessly courting with girls like Zoë Brooks (in _Chasing Zoey_) and Dolores Martinez (in _Favor Chain_); whence it is natural to assume that he would have also tried to do the same to Heather during her visit to Pacific Coast Academy, in spite of knowing how absurd a relationship between an intellectual and a star model would have been; but, sensing the unnatural aura of Heather —or Jade—changed his mind. Nevertheless, he turned more and more curious and willing to approach the hidden secret of the star; even his evident social awkwardness, or its expectable consequences, would not prevent him from trying. Upon spotting the pentagram inscribed onto her arms, Wayne was more sure than ever that there was a deeper mystery surrounding the model; whence—for Wayne,—it was obvious that Heather was far from a simple and kind Redneck girl.

The graphic novels of **DC** and **Marvel**, leaders in the branch of modern fantasy, contain several allusions to the pentagram as a magic symbol; Wayne was vaguely aware of them, and he did not hesitate going through a list of back issues. His first thought was **Daimon Hellstorm**, a half-devil born with a pentagram-shaped birthmark; but he would find many other examples, and some of them seemed more appropriate than others.

Quinn had often made fun of Wayne's unscientific hobbies; therefore, Wayne was now more than willing to show that his fantasy literature was able to save the day, whereas Quinn would never be. But how was he going to try to achieve this goal, and was he really able to figure the dark secret?


	7. The Techfoot Project

**Chapter 7 The Techfoot Project**

* * *

><p><strong><span>7:1 The Class Project<span>**

* * *

><p><strong><span>7:1:1 Dustin's Team<span>**

Mr. Bender had assigned the class project to his students who were supposed to prepare the script for the clip.

Dustin Brooks was among the members of this class, and he was—as usual, and not quite unlike his elder sister—very ambitious, eager to trump any possible competition. His dormitory mates were also his partners for the project, and he was the undisputed captain of the squad.

**Jack Kickside**, canonically known, albeit only by his first name, from episodes such as _Pilot_, was the most faithful of Dustin's friend—or so at least it seemed to be during the previous years. Unfortunately, Dustin's renown, even among his friends, had decreased steadily during the past years, because—among other yet less important aspects—he was growing slower, and still appeared—albeit reluctantly—emotionally dependant on his sister; which urged Zoey's little brother to spend more and more efforts into proving that he was still superior to his class mates.

**Maximilian Iskario**, while still claiming to be Dustin's friend, was conceived as a little traitor by the latter, because, as seen in his only canonical appearance during _Bad Girl_, he had betrayed Dustin once upon a time by telling Zoey things that her brother would have preferred to keep secret from her. Little surprise, he was —at least as perceived by Dustin—more of a challenge for his assumed leadership.

In order to master the challenge offered by Bender, Dustin Brooks thought immediately about using his sister's position. We know about Zoë's supreme qualities as a costume designer, and this no one will be surprised by hearing that Dustin begged his sister to create costumes exclusively for his script. But Zoë Brooks had already sworn to stay impartial; this implied that she was up to creating the costumes for the shooting according to the ideas and specifications of the winner after the decision by the competent judges, whom she assumed—correctly—to include Dale Squires. As a consequence, she urged Dustin to come up with his own ideas. But, while Dustin was a good organiser and writer, he was not skilled in creative visual arts—completely unlike his elder sister.

Dustin did not only need Zoë in order to help him with creating the outfit for his planned commercial video-clip, he also needed her in order to establish some personal contact with Heather Fox—for reasons that will be obvious to some readers, but will—nevertheless—be explained down below.

* * *

><p><strong><span>7:1:2 The Competitors<span>**

The closest of all competitors was a team of girls which had always put the boys under some incredible pressure.

**Stevie Baskara** is certainly known to many readers as a co-star of Nickelodeon's _How To Rock_ (which is actually one of her nightmares); on the other hand, she also appears in _Anger Management_ as a middle-school girl little pleased by Logan's ways of treating his employee Dustin. In fact, Logan's decadent demeanour was the major inspiration for the characterisation of **Grace King** and **Molly Garfunkel** in her nightmare. Remarkably, Stevie was a meticulous and uncompromising organisational talent, as revealed in the episode _How To Rock A Newscast_, and this was supposed to be beneficial for the chances of the team to turn out victorious. par **Jessica Woolfe** was mentioned as a failed appointment of awkward-looking and misbehaving pseudo-intellectual **Robert Shapiro** in the episode _Rex Dies_ of _Victorious_. A few extremely smart readers will also remember her as a Jessica mentioned in _Drake & Josh_'s episode _Drake And Josh Go Hollywood_. Indeed, she was from Colorado, and Paige Howard, the dreamer of the canon of _Drake & Josh_, was her girl next door. She was a skilled poetess mastering the technique of the stream of consciousness,—known to some readers from the works of historical **Virginia Woolfe**—like no other; whence she was supposed to deliver some excellent script for the commercial video-clip.

The third girl aboard Stevie's ship was **Wendy Courios**, an often—even in the eyes of her close friends—annoyingly inquisitive girl. She is the prototype of the Wendy portrayed in _Drake & Josh_'s episode _Number One Fan_, where she is courting in an uncomely manner much older rock star **Drake Parker**, also known as **Belindus Drake**, the rock idol guest-0starring in _Zoey 101_'s _Spring Fling_. Paige, the dreamer of _Drake & Josh_, had never been able to get along with her. Wendy Courios was a big fan of Heather Fox, about whom she knew nothing more than almost everyone else did; as a result, there was little doubt that she would do everything in order to trump[ anyone else trying to stand between herself and Heather. Wendy is also mentioned, but not portrayed, in the episode _Lola Likes Chase_, as a girl formerly courted in vain by Dustin Brooks. More precisely, she had not just rejected, but humiliated and ridiculed Zoë's little brother, whom she deemed immature and unworthy.

As a consequence, Dustin was still trying hard to find a way to punish Wendy by showing his maturity and his superiority, making her regret her former arrogant and humiliating demeanour when rejecting him; plausibly, the impending class project involving Heather West was on big opportunity for Dustin to send a message home into the face of the girl that had hurt his feelings worse than anyone else during the life on this campus.

* * *

><p><strong><span>7:2 Dustin's Perverted Business<span>**

The viewers of the episode _Drippin'_ will possibly remember that Dolores Martinez—albeit reluctantly—allowed Dustin to take photographs of her brassiere and to show them unto his class comrades who were attracted by the Latino diva.

Further, it is well-known that Dustin was often low on money. _Anger Management_ shows him, for the last time, working as an errand boy for Logan Reese—with less than pleasant consequences. Zoë Brooks had always (starting with _New Roomies_—encouraged Dustin to earn some money by means of accepting appropriate jobs; but, although she saw that Dustin had jumped from one uncomely trade to another, she had never been able to help him with actually finding some occupation for him that was—at least in her critical opinion—appropriate for her little brother. The reader should not wonder that Dustin had grown really desperate whenever he needed more and more money—regardless of the purpose.

As a consequence, Dustin had finally started to monetise his access to the dormitory hosting Dolores Martinez. More precisely, he had started taking pictures of Lola, her brassiere, and Lola wearing nothing but her brassiere; then he sold those pictures to students coveting the—in their eyes—extraordinarily attractive Latino diva. His customers had originally been only students of Pacific Coast Academy, but he had rapidly increased his business beyond the confines of the boarding school by means of telecommunication and private contacts. A variety of students at various middle- and high-schools in the southern counties of the state of California were among the clients of Zoë's little brother. Of course, Zoë Brooks would not have approved of her brother's business, and Dustin knew that very well, but she had it totally coming.

Of course, Dustin totally saw the market for selling similar pictures of Heather Fox, to whom many of Dustin's male friends (and even more boys outside the campus) were addicted and attracted in a decadent manner.

The reader might wonder whether Dustin was also monetising his familiarity with Zoë in a similar way; but he considered his elder sister as a holy virgin, whence he would not have treated her the same way as he did unto Lola; that notwithstanding, he was willing to monetise some less embarrassing information, such as his knowledge of the number of her mobile telephone. As some readers will remember, Zoë Brooks had wondered during _Rollercoaster_ why Wayne Gilbert knew her number; well, the previous statement answers Zoë's question, although—of course—she did not know that. Dustin needed to turn really disappointed by Zoë in order to do something like that; but the amount of reasons for this had accumulated during the last season, and especially during the course of _Chasing Zoey_, where Dustin had been abused shamelessly by Logan and Quinn in order to keep their perverse relationship secret from many students. Needless to say, Zoey would not have approved of her friends abusing her little brother in such a decadent manner, but she had been too busy with other things to even notice. After junior prom, her limited time with Chase and her preparation for the visit of Heather had kept on preventing her from taking appropriately care of her brother's urgent needs, whence her refusal of helping Dustin impartially with his school project was one final straw to crush the elephant's back. Zoë would—and so he understood—impossibly help him to access Heather the way he wanted to, whence he would have to take other measures.

* * *

><p><strong><span>7:3 The Alliance Of The Avengers<span>**

* * *

><p><strong><span>7:3:1 Heather Moves In With Stacey Dillson<span>**

While Heather would not have to stay on the campus during the whole project, she would still have to spend a few nights over here; for that reason, the school's administration had arranged a free spot in the dormitory blockk. Of course, most girls (and even more boys) would have killed in order to sharfe a room with the star model; but the aministration, represented by grumpy **Mrs. Burvich**, had to choose the only available vacancy; this happened to be a place in the room of **Stacey Dillson**, known to most readers as the least popular girl of Zoë's classes dueto her strange hobbies (sculpting with cotton swabs) and her speech impediment.

In _Logan Gets Cut Off_ and in _Goodbye, Zoey!_, Stacey reveals her anbitions of starting a career as a singer. Obviously, the samples of her singing prowess given therein did little to justify and encourage such a choice of a career; indeed, the only reason why her mother had encouraged Stacey to do so was in order to get rid of her. Like Heather, Stacey's parents had been caught in an horrible and moribund marriage. Stacey would, notwithstanding her apparent lack of talent, try to use Heather's help in order to find a way into the entertainmebt business. Singing a song together with Heather, maybe already as a part of the impending muisc video for the promotion of the techfoots, appeared as an ideal opportunity for the unusual girl from Massachusetts.

In _Chasing Zoey_, it is shown how Quinn Pensky and Logan Reese abused Stacey in the mose disgusting and deprecable manner (just as they had done to Dustin) as a way to hide their own corrupt relationship from Zoë and Michael; whence Stacey was now in a mood of making her abusers pay deerly for their abominable deed—even by ganging up with Dustin Brooks, her fellow victim!

Zoë Brooks was nevertheless in charge of introducing Heather to her room, and she envied Stacey somewhat—which she would not have done if she had known about Heather's double nature. Indeed, Zoey had tried hard to get either Lola or Quinn to migrate temporarily to Stacey Dillson's dormitory room, but neither of them were appropriately inclined. Dolores Martinez had always looked down upon Stacey in the most perversely arrogant manner, while Quinn Pensky was—deservedly—afraid of Stacey's wrath because of the aforementioned dirty abuse.

Heather had heard a little bit about Stacey Dillson from the spies she had sent to Pacific Coast Academy, and she had not come to think mvery highly of her temporary dormitory comrade. Notwithstanding her disgust, Heather had top feign being nice to her—at least by daylight—in order to maintain her renown as the infinitely patient country wench from Alabama. On the other hand, Heather had always sensed that Stacey had—even involuntaily—annoyed Dolores Martinez to quite some extent, turning her increasingly nervous; as a consequence, she thopught about ways to get Stacey to scare the Latino diva even more and more. Most importantly, Heather would have to spend the nights before the recording of video-clips in Stacey's room; as a consequence, she would have to perform the dark rituals preserving her public character in the presence of this—in most pupils' eyes—weird girl from Massachusetts.

Heather had first heard about Stacey after she had sent James, alias Dennifer, to Pacific Coast Acadxemy for the first time in order to spy on Dolores. Stacey had been used by the tall demonic womaniser, but he had to disappear thereupon because Heather had not been able to afford his service until much later.

The wary viewer of _Zoey 101_'s last season will, however, wonder why Stacey had not remembered James (Dennifer) at all when he had showed up again and seduced Zoë Brooks in a diabolic manner. This, of course, was not the result of a natural process of forgetting, but it had to do with James' diabolic hypostasis. that had been too much for the cotton swab artist to digest, causing her to forget it. Alas, those memories, however vanished from Stacey's day-conscious, were still slumbering deep underneath the surface, ready to pop up again—one way or another.

* * *

><p><strong><span>7:3:2 Dustin And Wayne Join Forces<span>**

Once again, Dustin Brooks looked up Wayne Gilbert's residence room in order to try to strike a deal.

Wayne wondered whether Dustin had finally talked his sister into kissing him, but Dustin made it clear that he saw no chance to make it happen; instead, he offered to look for a way to make Zoë —along with her dormitory comrades, who had always rejected him—pay for the arrogance she had always showed towards the outsider. Wayne sighed and deemed this as a good idea, announcing that Dustin's—as he called her—obstinate sister would rue the day, just as certain characters from his favourite graphic novels which he would thereupon enumerate, boring Dustin to some extent.

So, what did Dustin suggest unto Wayne? Well, as Zoë's little brother, he knew quite a few embarrassing things about her that they could tell Chase Matthews—especially about her adulterous activities during his life in London. par Wayne Gilbert definitely liked this idea, as he could not understand how Zoë Brooks, if she did have to cheat on Chase, had felt compelled into using some creep coming from nowhere.

Dustin remarked that he had seen James Garrett on the campus before, as Stacey Dillson's short-lived boyfriend during her year as a sophomore. This was surprising for Wayne, as he had never seen James back then, and because he had never heard Stacey mentioning him. Thereupon, Dustin mentioned that Stacey would host Heather during the nights before the taping of video-clips on the campus, and that he would try to sneak into that region in order to fetch some pictures of the star model. He hoped to be able to persuade Stacey into supporting his mission, because she had also been a victim of Logan's and Quinn's perverted activities during the last academic year.

Wayne had not yet been aware of the deeds of Quinn and Logan in the wake of the junior prom, but he had never understood why Quinn had lowered herself, in such a corrupt manner, to the abominable level of Logan Reese. Granted, he had demonstrated some professional envy towards the genius girl from Seattle; but—and so explained for Dustin—this had been ages ago, and he fully acknowledged her potential. Now he was secure in the knowledge that he needed to help Dustin to make Logan Reese pay dearly for the repeated abusive demeanour.

Dustin also offered to take some—in his own words—-interesting pictures of Heather, while sneaking into the dormitory room. Thereupon, Wayne declared that he would, under normal circumstances, have killed for such a picture of the star model; but, on the other hand, that he was scared by the magic tattoo on her arm. Dustin had never heard about the magical qualities of the pentagram, whence he did not quite understand what Wayne was talking about; thereupon, he was recommended to read some of the greatest graphic fantasy novel s of the past, especially those of the DC series featuring **Dr. Strange**, one of the most scary but fascinating super-people in the history of graphic novels.

Needless to say, there were quite a few back issues lying around in certain rooms of Pacific Coast Academy where Firewiure and his friends stored their supplies; those rooms were precisely the quarters of the school's science club, which was the very reason why Wayne had never wanted Quinn to join that club. Of course, the usage of teh room for that purpose was not exactly conforming with the school's rule book; for that reason, Wayne had alsways avoided showing anyone to the secret room. But now he sensed the school in danger, if not the whole world; whence it was necessary to initiate someone like Dustin Brooks into the deepest secrets of the club's real activities.

Dustin decided that. Gven those precarious circumstances, it was fair to warn at least Stacey Dillson, who was going to spend some nights with a girl of hidden and subious magical powers; after all, Dustin knew that she, as a fellow victim of the perversities committed by Logan Reese and Quinn Pensky, deserved better than getting abused by some potentially cruel witch.

In order to show his own superiority over mentally degrading Quinn pensky, as well as in order to support Dustin's campaign of revenge, Wayne Gilbert was also up to finding the weaknesses and mistakes in the new and—according to Jake Savage—improved techfoots; this strategy—or so he imagined—would hurt Quinn's feelings enough to make her repent and rue her recent misdeeds. The pupils participating ion Qualitech's contest were provided with some examples of the wonder-boots, whence Dustin just had to lend his copy unto the aspiring super-engineer.

* * *

><p><strong><span>7:3:3 Stacey Dillson Jumps Aboard Dustin's Train<span>**

It was not hard for Dustin to appeal to Stacey as a fellow victim of the perversity of Logan Reese and his—thoroughly inappropriate—mistress; indeed, the conversation, occurring in the cafeteria during lunch time, revealed unambiguously that the latter had always been looking for an occasion to do so, and that she would not have minded Dustin's help.

That notwithstanding, Stacey was shocked when she heard that Heather Fox was—at least according to Wayne Gilbert—a potentially dangerous witch; but she feared for the possibility of getting her cotton swabs jinxed, whence she promised to be careful and to report regularly back whenever she noticed something uncanny in the demeanour of the star model.

Dustin had read some of the graphic novels suggested by Wayne, but he had not yet understood them fully; whence he was only able to inform Heather about the crude elements of the theory of the pentagram—according to Wayne's knowledge and understanding.

Beforehand, Stacey had already build a cotton swab image of Heather's tattoo, which she wanted to present her as a gift in order to buy her good will and her support for the start of ma career, notwithstanding her lack of talent. But now she glared at her masterpiece, thinking that she had done something she was not able to handle. During the events of _The Curse Of PCA_, Stacey had been involuntarily and painfully involved in the events triggered by Zoë Brooks and her friends; whence she was open to any unusual explanation explaining paranormal impact from another dimension, as suggested by Wayne's graphic novels.

Even more, Distin mentioned James Garrett alias Dennifer, who had appeared dating Stacey long before returning to the campus in order to seduce Zoë Brooks; Dustin was n ot aware of the fact that Stacey had all but buried her unpleasant memories of Dennifer in order to be able to bear the reckless womaniser's second presence on the campus, but now he figured that he had stabbed a hive of furious hornets.

Stacey burst into a torrent tears, and flabbergasted Dustin had to try hard to comfort her somehow.

The wary reader will have wondered anyways how someone like James Garrett would have wanted a girlfriend of the league of Stacey Dillson, but the fact that he was a demon controlled—more or less—by Heather Fox suggests that it had been anything but a honest relationship.

* * *

><p><strong><span>7:4 Chase Is Informed<span>**

Wayne Gilbert finally called it the right moment for telling Chase Matthews about Zoë's inappropriate demeanour during his months over at Covington's academy in the heart of the United Kingdom.

Chase had formerly been annoyed a lot by Wayne Gilbert, but now he was almost greedily willing to talk to him; this, dear gentle reader, was—of course—the consequence of the fact that he had started feeling neglected by those whom he had—falsely—called his friends for the longest time. He had expected a lot from the last year at Pacific Coast Academy, the one and only year he would be able to spend as Zoë's acknowledged boyfriend, but he had to see her think more about her task of satisfying Heather Fox. Things would have been worse if he had known that his so-called girlfriend was not only acting upon the command of Adolf Bradford, but also because of her egomaniac dreams of a career as a fashion designer. Likewise, Dolores Martinez had avoided him completely during the last weeks, and he had already spotted her several times with Vincent Blake. Michael Barret, his—in Chase's esteem—closest Friend since the start of middle school, had always given evasive answers when being asked about what had been going on during the last months. For all this, Chase had started feeling cut off from his former friends; which was nothing but the very plan of Dolores Martinez and Vincent Blake.

Chase felt particularly bad because there were quite a few reasons for him to talk about his life in Covington; among these events, there had been his meeting with Corbierre, the stuffed raven of custodian Rodenmaar. He had felt hypnotised by her stare, just as Nina Martin alias Dakota North. He had never met that great model in person, but some students he had met on the campus of the most noble British academy had still been aware of the short visit of the American idol; indeed, Chase had been wearing the school uniform designed by Amanda Cantwell and presented by Nina Martin during her visit; even more, he had still got a few pictures of this uniform (along with many others from Covington) which he was up to sharing with his friends.

Wayne Gilbert was thus the first student of Pacific Coast Academy to be forced to listen to Chase's (occasionally exaggerated and distorted) reports about his life abroad, and he was a bit overwhelmed, but he did not lose the track at any moment. When he heard about Corbierre, he was immediately urged to look for parallels in his collection of graphic novels.

Chase had been a fan of this kind of literature, but (as reported in _Favor Chain_ he had felt growing too old for it, and he had thus started to be embarrassed by his (still massive) knowledge of their content. Due to Wayne's subtle hints, Chase remembered dark characters he was able to associate with Raven's uncanny appearance, one of them appropriately named **Raven**(from the DC comics).

This lead Wayne effortlessly to talking about the pentagram of Heather Fox, as the sacred symbol was supposed to offer protection against the demons associated with the symbol of the black raven.

Subsequently, Chase was now interested in trying to find out more about Heather's tattoo and her—correctly supposed—hidden powers.

Many viewers of _Zoey 101_ are probably still aware of _Chase's Grandma_, where his beloved grandmother passed away due to some unspecified disease striking improviso; ever since, Chase had been secretly searching for a way in order to contact the old lady again, and the symbol of the raven as a messenger from the dimensions below had started fascinating him. More explicitly, Chase—in spite of not knowing Poe's poem—had somewhat felt like the anonymous narrator of _The Raven_ who was desperately trying to cling onto the last straw in order to reclaim some deceased acquaintance. All begging and moaning of Poe's tragic figure had turned out in vain, but would the same be valid for Chase Matthews?

But now it was the right time for Wayne Gilbert to enlighten Chase Matthews about the events occurring on his campus that the latter's friends had hitherto refused to share with him: The arrival of James Garrett and the—apparent—reconciliation of Chase's friends with Vincent Blake.

As expected, Chase had a hard time believing that Zoë and Michael had been able to back-stab and to betray him in such a heartless manner—to the extent of protesting against Wayne—; but the reinforcement of the testimony, offered by Dustin Brooks, served finally to convince Chase of the truth that he had been really abandoned by his hypocritical friends, including especially Zoë Brooks; as a consequence, he finally understood the evasive demeanour of especially Michael Barret, the one person in whom he would have hitherto trusted his life. All of a sudden, a work was bursting into smithereens right in front of his eyes; whence he was preparing to get ready for some radical steps, no matter what consequences. It should be understood that Chase would have forgiven his former friends, and especially Zoë Brooks, if they had been honest and been the ones to inform Chase right away about their misdeeds; but, as the reader will see with ease, all of them had found reasons for postponing the necessary dialogue until it was too late.

So, what was Chase up to doing? As a first consequence, it was now impossible any longer to keep on sharing his dormitory room with his—in his own reasonable esteem—perversely unfaithful friends; whence he would have to implore previously mentioned Ms. Burvich fore getting reassigned; whereupon he would be allowed to move in with Mark del Figgalo, the most unpopular (or second to Wayne Gilbert only) of all boys at Pacific Coast Academy.

In addition, Chase Matthews was looking for the reasons of his failure of keeping Zoë Brooks, and there was no way for him to avoid seeing the reasons in the ways he had treated her during the years between Zoë's arrival and his own departure from the campus, especially his undecided demeanour of the first two years and—worse—his abuse of other girls in order to make Zoë jealous. He had to go back to the times when he had deployed Trinidad Rebecca Vega for that purpose, but Dolores Martinez and Patricia Kirby had been by no means better. He also regretted not having stood up to Logan Reese when that sadist pervert had taunted him over and over for his hidden feelings for Zoë Brooks.

Of course, Chase would also have to break his links with Dolores Martinez and with Quinn Pensky, but this was just a minor inconvenience; after all, he deemed both girls responisble for having pushed him into making Zoë jealous, and into fessing finally up to her—in an attck of utter dismay—when she was temporarily gone. Summing it up, Chase would lose an actress to write plays for, and an engineer in order to repair his bike and other useful items.

Chase understood correctly that he should never have trusted a filthy charlatan like Logan Reese in the first place; truth spoken, he had only done so because of the position of Logan's father in Hollywood, which Chase had always deemed potentially useful for a career as a screen writer.

But what hurt Chase most of all was the loss of the friendship with Michael Barret, which he had—falsely and carelessly—believed to be for good; for, after all, he could not believe that he had done anything wrong, whatsoever.

Worst of all, Chase was not only seeing in his past deeds the reasons for failing to keep his friends, but he started more and more feeling responsible for his grandmother's death; whence only a witch's intervention would be able—or so he believed—to save his own life.

* * *

><p><strong><span>7:5 The Reactions Of Chase's Former Friends<span>**

Of course, Zoë Brooks was not pleased when hearing that Chase was no longer considering her as a friend, because—due to her lack of honesty and loyalty—she was no longer trustworthy. It was futile to remind Chase of the pressure she was exposed to because she needed to think more and more about her career choices (for the time following graduation from Pacific Coast Academy) to be decided on as soon as possible. In addition, she started to rue—and would do so more and more—that she had forgiven Vincent Blake. The canon (in _Vince Is Back_ suggests that this treason had been facilitated—in addition to Lola's persuasive intervention—by cheap and tasteless bribery, invoking a bag of gelatinous candy; whence Zoë started feeling exactly like that: cheap and tasteless! Needless to say, her relationship with Dolores Martinez would thence start to suffer quite a bit.

Logan Reese, as expected, did not really mind, for he had—as repeatedly expressed throughout the canon—never expected Chase to be anything but one of the biggest losers under the red hot Californian sun.

Dolores Martinez feigned being consternated upon Chase's decision, but she laughed deep inside; for, as seen from the previous chapters, she and Vince had now finally achieved what they had been working on. But she was little aware of the fact that she was thus about destabilising herself.

Quinn Pensky appeared not to care all that much, as she was fully struck in her own problem of obtaining intellectual world domination—a goal for which Chase was—according to her guesses—neither a boon nor an obstacle of any stretch. On the other hand, she wondered—even more than Zoë—why she had fallen for some stupid sack of candy as well as for Lola's seductive words. Starting there, she would soon discover that she had degenerated more and more since she had started being in a gang with the Latino diva—especially since the two of them had be made dormitory comrades.

Understandably, Michael Barret was most consternated by Chase's declaration to break with his former friends and to move out; he was tortured by terrible remorses for having pardoned Vincent Blake, but he also knew that he had lost the only person with whom to share his experiences with Mr. Takato. As a matter of fact, his—falsely so-called—girlfriend Lisa Perkins had still not believed his story, whence the two of them were growing already rapidly apart. Without Chase's help—or so feared Michael—he would sooner or later grow completely insane and wreak havoc. He considered that it had possibly been a mistake for him to give up on his prior girlfriends prematurely, such as **Vanessa Tayler**, whom the wary reader remembers from _Zoey 101_'s _Quinn's Alpaca_(but she was also seen in _List Of The Kissed_ of _Unfabulous_). Was there a way for him to regain Chase's confidence, or would he have to accept—just as Poe's tragic figure—the raven's ultimate judgement: "Nevermore!"?

* * *

><p><strong><span>7:6 The Winners<span>**

Needless to say, Dustin had spent all of his efforts on finding out more about Heather Fox alias Jade West; whence he was unable to come up with an optimal presentation for a possible video-clip for Daka Shoes—not even with some feeble support offered by equally distraught playwright Chase Matthews. As a result, Stevie Baskara and her henchwomen won the contest with both hands tied to the back. While Wendy Courios and Jessica Woolfe just celebrated their landslide-sized victory, Stevie Baskara was less ingenuous, and she knew that something must have inhibited the efforts of her usually closest rival; whereupon she decided to go and look after the mess, ready to find the reasons for her close rival's failure. But what would she have done upon finding out in what a mess she was about to stumble upon?


	8. The Taping

**Chapter 8 The Taping**

* * *

><p><strong><span>8:1 Heather Performs In Stacey's Dormitory Room<span>**

It was the night before the start of the taping of the scenes corresponding to the script worked out and submitted (as mentioned before) by Stevie Baskara, Jessica Woolfe, and Wendy Courios; a night which Heather Fox was—albeit reluctantly—ready to spend in the dormitory room of Stacey Dillson; a night which forced the star-model to do everythinbg in order to be able to accomplish the usual expectations of the masses.

During the last days, Heather had been more withdrawn thahn ever before; this was of course a consequence of being unable to upkeep her usual demeanour in the public. She had not found any new sourcves of power, and Beck was now all but exhausted; which is tantamount to stating that the demon's requests were far more than Heather was able to deliver—under any circumstances whatsoever.

She had been guided by Zoë Brooks all over the campus, and she had seen—which was possible due to her paranormally extended senses—signs and traces of magical and demonic possession hidden deep within the school's history, as opposed to just being part of the psyche of the current students, teachers, administrators, and staff members.

Stacey had been warned by Dustin and Wayne, but she was still willing to try to use Heather for the purpose of pushing the cotton swab artist's career. During the previous days, she had been feeling forced over and over to think about her short relationship with James Garrett, and about her failure in recognising him again once he had been on the campus in order to seduce and abuse Zoë Brooks; but, for the moment, she was not able to see Heather as the one who had caused all the trouble.

During her previous daytime visits, Heather had been shown to the sculpture of Napoléon Bradford, and she had immediately sensed a dark power emanating from it. Since Adolf Bradford's speech, she had been up to taping the power in order to accomplish her own needs, but only now was the right time for the ritual, which she had seen illustrated in the secret books in Kreuftlva's hidden office. Of course, she hstill had not read the theoretical instructions. So, what was she doing in order to gain access to the hidden powers? Really, the readers should not expect to get a picture of the ceremony; least, as pointed out beforehand, we would just promote what we have been warning against, id est preforming rituals without prior comprehension of the theory. This is not tantamount to saying that the illustrations and engravings provided by—exempli gratia—Robert Fludd serve no purpose but inviting the lazy and shallow-minded to abuse the magics; for, quite the contray, the visual impression of the symbols depicted meticulously by the master is a veritable inspiration for the honestly contemplating viewer. But neither would any verbal description, possible within the framework of this little story, do any justice to these works of spiritual visualisation, nor were Jade's memories of what she had seen in those works anywhere near reliable (once more: due to her lack of theoretical understanding).

On the other hand, we will see what Stacey Dillson understood when watching her temporary dormitory comrade improviso in the dimming moon light. Heather had not been prepared for being watched, as she had turned desperate and careless; indeed, she had already been careless back in her days in Upstate New York, when she had been accidentally watched by Dolores Martinez. Quite a few viewers of season three and four of _Zoey 101_ are likely to agree that Dolores and Stacey are as different as two girls of the same generation can be. Accordingly, their reactions to their respective perception of Jade's (or Heather's) secret demeanour were—mildly spoken—not quite alike. For example, Stacey was prone to startling and getting gerself hurt quite easily, and this was also the case—notwithstanding the warnings previously issued by no other than Wayhe Gilbert—upon spotting Jade's dark invokations; plainly said, there was no chance that Stacey would be able to follow Dolores' exxample of being able (for four years top come) to pretend that nothing had happened. The cotton swab artist simply squealed in terror and fled in panic, rolling down the staircase in a way reminiscent to Sikiwitz' case (reported earlier up the road). In addition, she was unable to make any sense of the—apprarently little regular—movements Jade had been going through; this fact contributed significantly to the sculptor's immediate confusion. Heather Fox had still been like in a state of trance; whence she did not even faiul to notice what had happened to Stacey, but even continue to live in the belief that she had not been watched at all.

Drunk and nauseous Coco Wexler, who had been on her patrol during the same night, had been too drunk to notice Stacey roll down the very same staircase she was up to climbing—or, rather, vaccilating. As a consequence, the wretched body of a thoroughly dizzy Stacey Dillson was not discovered until the early morning, just as the sun was rising, by bypassing Quinn Pensky.

The intellectual young lady from Seattle felt the need of treating the wounds of the unlucky fellow student, whence she decided to take her to her own dormitory room in order to apply her medical inventions. But, as she anticipated correctly, Dolores Martinez would have been adamantly opposed to letting Stacey into her dormitory room, let alone onto her bed. Quinn did not trust the infirmary, and she lacked the abilities necessary for making sense of the stammered utterances provided by the swab artist; whence she decided to call **Syrinca Lang** (the veterinary surgeon known to some readers by family name from _Zoey 101_'s episode _Quinn's Alpaca_) in order to take care of the wretched body of Stacey Dillson. Usually, Miss Lang resided on the horse ranch of **Faye Dunnaway**, known from _Zoey 101_'s episode _Quinn Misses The Mark_; there, she worked as a veterinary taking care of many horses and other hooved animals, including Quinn's alpaca **Outis**, which is known to some readers from the former episode.

Finally, Stacey was out of contention, and nobody knew what had heppened to her, including the most obvious culprit: Heather Fox (Jade West).

* * *

><p><strong><span>8:2 Stevie The Director<span>**

As established, Dales Squires preferred to let others do the dirty work, while taking the credits; in addition, he imagined that the middle-school kids were too ingenuous to see how they were shamelessly exploited; but he had not yet come to know Stevie Baskara, the ring leader of the winners of the contest.

The reader familiar with _Zoey 101_'s episode _Michael Loves Lisa_ remembers possibly that Lisa and Dale had become temporary a couple after some hilarious incident, but that Dale had run away like a coward when Lisa's life had been in danger; whereupon Michael had saved Lisa and made her his mistress. Alas, things were not as superficial as Dan Schneider tries his viewers to believe, and Trisha Kirby had not accidentally dreamed _iSaved Your Life_ the way it was. Lisa's relationship with Michael Barret had turned out in the most awkward and distatesteful manner because theier life philosophies were by absolutely no means compatible, as was the case for Carly and Fredward. Just as Fredward Benson refused in the most asinine manner to believe in curses and cryptozoology, Lisa Perkins was unable to believe Michael's story about a mystery man—verily, I tell you, this is a discrepance that can't be bridged by whatever pseudo-heroic deed. Notwithstanding Patricia's usual lack of intelligence, she had drawn an extremely smart conclusion which appeared out of her league; but she had been manipulated to some extent by Heather Fox alias Jade West, whence her personality was not always left in a consistent state.

Now the reader potentially wonders whether Dale, once aware of the rocky situation between Michael and Lisa, was up to revive this former temporary relationship, and whether Lisa was inclined to do the same. Truth said, Lisa knew very well that a relationship with the famous director would be benificial for her career as a pop star; whence she would have been very much inclined to continue the old business before being misguided by the fact of getting her life saved by Michael Barret. After all, Lisa was about as career-greedy as Dolores, and she had learned a lot from the Latino diva's tricks—which was possible although she did not really see or understand what Dolores had been up to. But the reader should know something that can't be inferred from the canon: Lisa had always been trying to use Michael—since her arrival on the campus of Pacific Coast Academy; more precisely, she had known before about the soul flautist's abilities as a acomposer (as exhibited in _Time Capsule_), whence she had planned to secure his services for herself—one way or another. For the time being, it was her goal to make it as a backup singer into the commercial video-clip to be produced by Dale Squires, whence she snuck up to him the same way she had done before the start of her unholy affair with Michael Barret, during which she had seduced him over and over subtly with the intention of squezing new tunes out of his brains, tunes suitable for new solo performances. The loss of Michael was not of much importance, as any kind of communication with him had turned impossible since the incident invoiving Takato, whence she would need a new composer, anyways. Clearly, a reckless yet awarded director was more usable for the solo pop diva's career than a degraded composer caught in his—according to Lisa Perkins—absurd hallucinations of non-existing Takato—a mystery man who will be studied more closely further down the road. Michael Barret was now still consternated by Chase's decision of not forgiving his reckless betrayal, and seeing Lisa close to Dale Squires again made him suffere inside more and more.

Heather appeared on the taping site as if nothing had happened, and she made the usual impression of an uncomplicated redneck country girl that the Bradford clan appearewd to appreciate so much. But her attempts of tapping the hidden forces of the school's history had not been as successful as usual, and it was just a matter of time when she would show the traces. Heather thought that there was no problem, but she was less convinced of her own judgement than usual.

Stevie Baskara was keen on directing the team on the campus, and she hardly tolerated any objections and contradictions; but her demeanour was by all means justified due to her supreme competence, as opposed to that of Dale Squires, who was thoroughly distracted by Lisa Perkins. Stevie took over and declared unambiguosusly that Lisa Perkins, if she wanted to participate in the video-clip, needed to accept her part and rehearse with the others, just as anyone participating. In addition, Stevie refused correctly to provide Heather West with anyt special privileges; this made the star-model boil from the inside, and her power to maintain her habitual public character was already very feeble; and this resulted finally in the first uncomely words issued by Heather Fox in front of a running camera. Many onlookers were shocked, but Stevie had always been convinced of the fact that seemingly perfect stars were not what they seemed; whence she had got no qualms continuing the tapings according to her script, insisting that not a tiddle was to be altered. As a minor concession, she told Heather to take a break of thirty minutes, but she made it also clear that this would be the only break to be granted. Stevie would use the absence of Heather in order to preach her very reasons for writing the script the way it was written. Not even her dormitory mates Jessica Woolfe and Wendy Courios were able to follow Stevie's thoughts, and they were not even interested.

* * *

><p><strong><span>8:3 Stacey Is Gone<span>**

Zoë Brooks had guided Heather Westy bacxk to her dormitory room, thinking about using the break in order to use Heather—as planned—for her purposes. Granted, she was shocked by the rough demeanour of her false new friend, but she still was willing to exploit her for her contacts with Mad Style and other fashion labels.

Heather entered her dormitory room, and now she turned aware of the fact that Stacey Dillson had been absent for the longest time. Zoey was equally surprised, because she had recently heard Stacey announce that she would use every occasion to talk Heather into bridging her way to the studios of Hollywood. As a consequence Zoë Brooks, although she used to look down upon Stacey Dillson, decided to investigate; on the other hand, she did not refrain from mentioning the fashion labels.

So far, Zoë Brooks had believed that Heather's slip had been a one-time exception, but she would soon be disappointed, whence she started having her doubts about the super-star. In order to distract herself, she used her mobile telephone in order to find out what had happened to Stacey Dillson; indeed, after a few fruitless attempts, she reached Quinn pensky and heard about the destiny of the swab artist; whereupon she commanded Quinn to go downtown and look after the unfortunate student.

Zoë did this, not because she cared about Stacey, but because she wanted to avoid any further troubles which would ensue —once the administration would be aware of Staceyu's absence from classes and the dormitory curfews—inevitably lest the students landed a preventive strike and presented a plausible explanation before the administration was forced to handle. Even more, Zoë was aware of the fact that such a scandal, during anb event like this, was especially fatal for the well-being of Pacific Coast Academy due to drawing a lot of public attention.

Quinn Pensky really promised to take care of it, which was supposed to be easy, as Syrinca Lang had been a friend and mentor to Quinn Pensky for several years already.

* * *

><p><strong><span>8:4 In A Log Stable<span>**

Quinn Pensky had arrived in the treatment rooms of Miss Lang, which—due to the fact that her job was located on the grounds of a horse ranch—was essentially a log stable filled with lots of hay and straw. Some readers would be reminded of the Christian fable of the newly born Lord lying in the manger holding food for the farm beasts, such as an ox and a donkey. **Alvin Boyd Kuhn**, the great master of the interpretation of hidden symbols in Holy writings, has already aptly described the relevance of this imagery; more precisely, _Who Is This King Of Glory_ outlines correctly how this aspect of the fable is to be understood as an expression of the divine androgyneity, the ul;timate detachment of spirit from matter. The truest of the alchemists of the past, including Robert Fludd, had indeed understood this as the goal of the **opus magnum**, the ultimate masterpiece of their—generally—poorly understood craft. Vulgar and ingenuous people of low mental capactity mistake alckemy for an art of creating expensive materials from common ones, and—falsely so-called—scientists deem alchemy superstitious. But none of those ignorants will ever be able to approach the proper meaning of this divine discipline.

But the wary reader hads probably already connected the dots: The pentagram depicts the four elements along with the spiritual quintessence, and the proper goal will be that of detaching the latter from the elements, or—using a classic Greek expression—**stoicheia**.

Alvoin Boyd Kuhn provides us with even more details about above imagery in _The Stable And The Manger_, quoting _The Epistle Of St. Ignatius To The Romans_ where the (probably pseudonymous) author expresses his wish to become food to the beasts; for he saw himself as the pure wheat of God, awaiting to be ground to pure flour and then turned into the pure bread of God. Not without reason, **Beth Lehem**, which derivces from a semitic expression meaning _house of bread_, had been chosen as the place of the Lord's birth.

Summing it up, this location, a log cabin hosting supplies for farm animals, is perfectly suited for preparing teh turning point of teh story of Heather Fox, bearer of the sign of the cohesion and separation of the stoicheia and the quintessence.

Syrinca Lang reported how she had tried to treat Stacey—albeit to little or no avail. Thereupon, Quinn offered to apply her latest medical inventions and surgery skills, which she deemed significant iumprovements of what she had lerned from her—in her own words—most awesome mentor; whence Syrinca felt endlessly flattered and agreed with Quinn's plans. The reader thoroughly familiar with _Zoey 101_ will remember Quinn performing or planning a variety of surgeries and other ways of tricky medical treatment. In addition, Quinn had also performed the surgeries of Patricia Kirby's mother which are insinuated in _iTake On Dingo_ or _iMus Have Locker 239_.

While Quinn prepared the looming surgery, she received a call on her mobile telephone; once more it was Zoë Brooks to call, and she stated that Heather Fox had collapsed on her way back to the taping site. Of course it was necessary to keep those news from the public, whence Quinn decided to sneak the unconscious body of the star-model off teh campus and onto the ranch of Faye Dunnoway—in order to get treated there by the skilled hands of Quinn and Syrinca. To be honest—little did Miss Brooks know that said location was nothing but a wooden shed filled with hay, but she would not have had cared anyways due to the impending problems on the campus.

* * *

><p><strong><span>8:5 Sneakling Heather Off The Campus<span>**

Zoë Brooks was desperate enouygh to call the one person whom she had come to hate most among all students of Pacific Coast Academy: Wayne Gilbert! She was well-aware of the fact that Chase had been informed by the former about her adulterous and treacherous deeds during his absence, but she needed now a miracle in order to get out of the situation without being ever since associated with the end of the career of Heather Fox and the downfall of the renown of Pacific Coast Academy.

Wayne Gilbert cackled crazily when hearing Zoë's voice, but he did not hesitate any longer and come up with a plan to get the star treated secretly without interrupting the flow of the schedule. This would—in his plans—give Zoey enough time to send a messenger with the liveless and wretched body of Heather Fox over to the ranch .

Indeed, Zoë wanted to send Miuchael Barret, but she decided to make Dustin accompany him. Ensuing this decison, Michael had behaved too weird as of lately—for previously mentioned reasons.

* * *

><p><strong><span>8:6 Sandalphon<span>**

Alchemy is a great spiritual discipline, and it is—more or less—tightly related to the secret tradition of the **Qabbalah**.

Many people somewhat familiar with the latter have heard at least about the tree of life, a very complex symbol representation of the intriguing relationships between God, angels, and life.; this consists basically of ten connected stations, the **Sephiroth**; and it connects those with meaningful paths whose due exploration would be beyond the reach of his story (but indispensable for a full understanding). The lowest of the Sephiroth is the **Malkuth**, which could be roughly translated as _empire_, and **Sandalphon** is the archangel assigned to this point of the tree.

It is not clear what the name is supposed to mean, and so some students have—jokingly or not—tried to deriuve it from _sandalon_ and _phone_, giving it the meaning of _the voice of sandal shoes_. This sounds far-fetched, but may be justified because this is the lowest point in the tree, touching the solid ground just like shoes. Even an etymological joke may reveal important hidden meaning, as demonstrated by Ionic sage **Plato** in his great work _Kratylos_.

And now we remember that Heather's activities on the campus of Pacific Coast Academy were intended to serve the promotion of Daka's (or nowadays Qualitech's) Techfoots, another kind of shoes. Wayne Gilbert had worked duly on the—falsely so-called—improved and upgraded version of this uncomely kind of footwear in order to convince everyone of his supreme qualities as an engineer.

Many mythical beings apopear—in one shape or another—in some series of graphic novels; and Sandalphon is no exception, as known especially by grahic-novel addict Waynbe Gilbert. The latter had to think a lot about this strange names, and while workinmg on those weird boots, he had connected the dots and rebaptised the work of Daka and Qualitech to _Sandalphon_.

Steveie Baskara had already been turning impatient down to Heather's absence when Wayne showed up with a long script. He addressed Stevie and whispered unto her that he had found some potential fault in the construction and the fabrication of the shoes of Qualitech. Dale Squires would have urged to continue the tapings on site—because Qualitech had already paid for the clip—, but Stevie Baskara was of a different opinion; more precisely, she insisted in confirming and fixing any bugs before keeping on promoting the hitherto poorly tested works of Qualitech; after all, she did not want to be associated with faulty technology. For that reason, she commanded Wayne to give a demonstration of the resulkts of his research, allowing her to judge and to fix any mistakes previously made by Quinn pensky and any of Qualitech paid—but thoroughly inept and corrupt—engineers.

Wayne Gilbert had anticipated that Stevie would want to fix the bugs with her own hands instead of leaving it up to him, but this was just a minor evil. He showed around various pictures, and he had also prepared a digitalised moving picture representation of what was wrong, what consequences this would have, and whether there was a way to fix it.

Jake Savage tried hard to downplay the significance of the material presented by Wayne Gilbert, but Stevie Baskara was too charismatic and convinced about everyone to interrupt the taping of the commercials until everything was deemed safe and sane.

In any case, the low position of Sandalphon within the hirarchy of archangels expresses perfectly the fact that many people and organisations presented in this story had now hit the ground, the deepest point in their lifetime. But would it be possible for Heather Fox and others to climb the tricky path to the highest sephiroth of the tree of life—the **Kether**?

* * *

><p><strong><span>8:7 Stevie Challenges Dustin<span>**

The taping was cancelled, and it would not be resumed soon again. Stevie did not want to rely on Wayne Gilbert, but she knew that there was a lot of work to do.

Then she contacted Dustin Brooks, suggesting him to continue their old rivalry by making a contest of fixing the faults of the techfoots. Alas, Zoë's little brother was still in a miserable state, and Stevie knew that it was no fun hitting on someone that was already down on his knees; whence she suggested Dustin to work together with her, whereby—or so she hoped—he would be able to overcome his current depressions. She thought—not quite incorrectly—that he felt oppressed too much by his elder sister, and she started talking some sense into her by appealing to the fact that she had got several elder brothers that—taken together—were even worse than Zoë Brooks. After all, Stevie knew that Dustin had been the best student in chemistry laboratory classes before her arrival on the campus, and that he would be willing to show that his well=known ambitions were still justified.

Dustin Brooks finally consented, but he still feared that he was just a shadow of the good old Dustin; however, he refrained from mentioning the reasons, and he was not willing to talk to Stevie about them—not yet!

* * *

><p><strong><span>8:8 Heather In The Hay<span>**

Syrinca Lang was now left alone with Stacey and Heather. Luckily, nobody would miss the latter until a new job was waiting for her.

Stacey was now already able to talk again, and she reported—albeit chaotically—what she had gone through during the previously reported night. She had even mentioned occasionally that Heather had been a witch of some sort.

Finally, Heather understood that she had been the culprit, and she had failed on her way of securing more power for herself. Alas, she was not yet willing to believe that she had been so wrong.

Quinn had visited Heather twice for the purpose of medical treatment, and, upon hearing Stacey's rumours, she was now hoping to receive some in formations about what was going on in her career; really, as she had already considered the possibility of curses during the incident involving Charles R. Galloway, she asked Heather right on site for the possibility of being subject to some curse.

But how would Heather—or so she asked herself—ever be able to get rid of her dark side when trying to talk to Quinn about the subject of curses? Really, it would have been foolish to even try to get rid of what she conceived as her _dark side_ by simply ignoring and forgetting about it. Fortunately, Heather remembered that Krauftlva had always told her to study certain books, and she knew that Quinn was an extremely book-smart person; thence she concluded, finally, that Quinn would have less problems reading the works of Lévi or Fludd than she had ever had. But was it really possible to combine their forces in such a way and achieve a satisfactory result? I would not say so, but let us see how they tried to get it started. After all, finding a way out would be like the proverbial search of a needle in the the hay stack.


	9. Finale

**Chapter 9 Finale**

* * *

><p><strong><span>9:1 The Imperfect Pentagram<span>**

Quinn Pensky was an expert for the **Theory Of Relativity**, the masterpiece of genius physicist **Albert Einstein**who was—not without reason—rumoured to share her ancestry, anyways; as such, she was definitely fairly proficient with **analytic geometry** and **differential geometry**, indispensable tools for the understanding of theoretical physics; ergo, she had not hesitated evaluating Jade's tattoo with respect to geometric standards, and she came to a few conclusions.

In no case could Quinn Pensky see any perfection of the pentagram—simply because it was far from perfect. That glaring imperfection was the result of a bunch of factors. First, it was tattooed onto the surface of Heather's arm, which was by absolutely no means part of a perfect **Euclidean plane**, the most regular and well-understood of all surfaces. Rather, the fairly irregular shape of a human arm is not equivalent in any reasonable sense with the euclidean surface due to its curved nature; more precisely, the non-vanishing of the surface's so-called **Gaussian Curvature** excluded the existence of a smooth (at least twice continuously differentiable) isometric mapping between a part of the Euclidean plane and the environment of every spot on Jade's skin. In other words, the elaborate concept of a regular pentagram, as intended by our forerunners, did not even make sense on Heather's arm.

Next, tattoo artist Agnella had to rely on her eye-sight and her hand-eye coordination, which again were potentially restricted by so many factors that an exact execution of a plan of engraving a perfect pentagram onto the perfect plane appeared like a race against all odds; a little twitch, heterogeneous ink, a tender breeze of the air could have destroyed the perfection before even taking off the ground.

Finally, Heather's arm was not immutable, but it had already been growing and reshaping to some degree, due to the natural decay and decadence of the human flesh; whence even an originally perfect pentagram would have been perverted and corrupted over time.

Quinn Pensky had not heard about a perfect pentagram in particular, but she knew that magics relied—if possible—on perfect symbols; whence she started comparing Heather's tattoo with her knowledge about the true pentagram. The following geometric facts were of course well known to Quinn Pensky, but even more to Wayne Gilbert or Paige Howard:

The tips of the star form a regular pentagon, and—as five is a so-called Fermat prime—it may be constructed using only the ruler and the compass, in a way in which already the ancient Greek of the school of **Plato Of Athens**, the greatest of all European intellectuals, had supposed it to be. The first number not allowing for such a regular polygon is, as is well-known, seven.

The pentagram had been a holy symbol for the ancient **Pythagoreans** although it defied a major thesis established by that illustrious club of scholars: The school was keen on describing everything by means of rational numbers, but the pentagram contains distances of an irrational ratio known nowadays as the **golden section**, the solution of a certain quadratic equation.

The value of the golden section may, however, be approximated easily by a simple algorithm leading to the so-called **Fibonacci sequence**, a sequence of positive integers where the sum of two consecutive members equals the next value within the sequence; more precisely, the ratio of two consecutive members of the sequence converges to the golden ratio.

So, while Heather was completely unfamiliar with these arithmetic and geometric facts, Quinn enjoyed talking about the,—she knew many decimals of the value of the golden ratio by heart—to the point of annoying and upsetting quite a few students forced to listen to her.

The golden section and the pentagram are often reported in the context of a few other scientific events; for now, it suffices to recall an astronomical incidence that comes fairly close to a regular pentagram. In a geocentric view, the sun orbits the earth, while the planet of Venus orbits the sun. The latter course is of a much smaller diameter, and it is performed at a higher speed than the former; consequently, the planet of Venus appears occasionally to run backwards (**retrograde**) for several weeks—when it is fairly close to the earth. This movement is fastest in the point where the planet of Venus appears almost on a straight line connecting earth and sun, and as close to earth as it gets; this point is known as the **inferior conjunction** of sun and Venus. If you record the positions of consecutive occurrences of the inferior conjunctions in the geocentric system, and if you connect the dots in the order in which those conjunctions do occur, you will draw a figure that comes fairly close to a regular pentagram. Many people, such as **Dan Brown**, author of _The Da Vinci Code_, have read too much into this incident that is remarkable but not stunningly pure.

It can't be emphasised enough that all natural events that appear to involve the golden section are only approximations, just like the tattoo on Jade's arm: There is no such thing as purity in flesh and blood, only in spirit; this alone—so we must conclude—implies that true discipline is not attained by rituals of the flesh but only by exercise of the mind and spirit. Heather had hitherto neglected the latter and believed that a trust in the former was enough, but she had been fundamentally mistaken.

* * *

><p><strong><span>9:2 Heather Ponders Logan's Nature<span>**

For several nights, Heather was now exposed to listen to the utterances of Stacey Dillson; in doing so, she learned a lot about Stacey's insane obsession with Logan Reese during the last two years, along with her disappointment about the fact of having been perversely and shamelessly abused by this—more or less—diabolic figure. Of course, Stacey had not originally believed in Logan as a spawn from hell, but Heather had had that expression from the day when she watched the video-clip about Logan Reese's performance in Chase Matthews' play. Nevertheless, Logan was not a demon conjured by any of his fellow students who suffered from his presence, especially not of Quinn Pensky or Stacey Dillson, his most immediate victims; for this reason, it was evident for Heather that the evil nature of Logan Reese had to reach back a lot further into the history of Pacific Coast Academy.

Heather did indeed have the abilities to communicate with the dead, and she would even have been useful for Chase Matthews and his desperate quest of reaching out for his decease grandmother; alas, for the time being, she felt too weak and vulnerable—especially not strong enough to mess with spirits of the past of pacific Coast Academy.

Granted, Chase's grandmother had never been a pupil of this school—simply because women had not been allowed as students until long after her adolescence. But this did by no means imply that she had never been involved in the history of this school. Quite the contrary: Chase had not been the first boy in the family's history to study on the illustrious grounds of Pacific Coast Academy; rather, the husband of his deceased grandmother was an alumnus of this renowned boarding school, and his grandmother had already accompanied him to various meetings of alumni taking place off the campus. These connections explained why Heather Fox was wary and reluctant, fearing to stick her nose straight into a bees' hive.

In _The Curse Of PCA_ we see that Chase had not been really willing to investigate the legend of deceased Charles R. Galloway; and this scary reluctance was nothing but the result of his grandfather's history as an alumnus. More precisely, there had always been something that the old man had refused to talk about, and Chase had not been up to waking up sleeping werewolves. Chase's—albeit very brief—adventures in the den of the black raven in the House of Anubis, on the campus of Covington Academy, had already made him a lot more sensitive to enigmatic features of a school's past, and so he did understand Heather's decision. But this did not mean that Heather was not willing to help Chase to communicate with his grandmother, provided that he demonstrated some efforts in figuring more about the past of the school, using more conventional means. Unfortunately, he was still upset by his former friends' uncomely demeanour; whence he knew he would have to do it alone—at least for the time being.

* * *

><p><strong><span>9:3 Michael Barret's Research<span>**

Unlike Chase Matthews, Michael Barret had demonstrated quite some interest in the history of the boarding school; for example, he had been really enthusiastic when he had been asked to join an expedition in order to verify the legend of Charles R. Galloway.

The reader should know that the original Pacific Coast Academy had not only been reserved for boys, but—more specifically—to male white Anglo-Saxon protestant students; whence there had been none of Michael Barret's ancestors among the first generation of students of Pacific Coast Academy. It is safe to claim that the school was not part of Michael Barret's cultural heritage; that notwithstanding, he had turned willing to explore it once he had stopped feeling like a total stranger on the campus—due to being considered as a peer by Chase Matthews.

Michael's family was firmly rooted in the tradition of soul music—although he was thoroughly embarrassed when seen trying to practise soul tunes with his flute. His grandmother, mentioned several times throughout season three and four, was known for her cooking expertise which was rooted in the Afro=American tradition of putting leftovers, which had been thrown away by wasteful white masters—to good usage.

After encountering Takato, a man claiming to be a middle-school teacher at Pacific Coast Academy, Michael had asked Dustin and his comrades, but without a positive result. During early senior year, he had started studying the yearbooks of the school in order to find an answer, and indeed, he found some hints.

While there was no current teacher named Mr. Takato, there had been one of this names during the past decades, and he had been the first student on the campus of Japanese ethnicity—a guest student during the times of Charles R. Galloway. Alas, his fake girlfriend Lisa Perkins had never wanted to accept Michael's discovery as a proof that he had not been wildly hallucinating and dreaming up Takato; rather, she accused him of having just been lucky to find someone that happened to share the family name of his dream figure. As we've established beforehand, the stubborn demeanour of Lisa Perkins had been the ultimate reason for their recent separation.

But now there was a chance that there was a witness for the olden days of Pacific Coast Academy—one that was not as intimidating as Adolf Bradford or evil teacher **Mr. Hodges** (whom the reader remembers from _The Curse Of PCA_). Michael, who had been accidentally informed by Zoë Brooks about Heather's current whereabouts, had snuck a message to the current hideout of the star-model, communicating what he had found out.

* * *

><p><strong><span>9:4 These Boots Are Made For Walking<span>**

Some readers are possibly familiar with the song _These Boots Are Made For Walking_ by **Nancy Sinatra**, a singer from l;ast century's sixties; the song is about vindicatory plans made by a disappointed girlfriend. As we have seen, Dustin Brooks was replete with vengeful feelings for having been shamelessly abused by Quinn Pensky and Logan Reese, and he put all these into his research project with Stevie Baskara.

Originally, Dustin had not wanted to reveal his intentions unto his partner, but she had finally achieved provoking him into fessing up and explaining what had been going on; whereupn Stevie, who hated no less the possibility of being abused, joing Dustin's campaign full force. No longer did she just want to correct Quinn's mistakes made in design ing the techfoots, or sandalphons; but she was up to humiliating the fallen genius and her diabolic fiancé as well.

For this avail, the two of them, who had finally solved all the technical problems of the techfoot, were ready to give a presentation that would really destroy the nerves of the genius girl from Seattle; in order to achieve this goal, they had studied the previously visit of Paige Howard, which had already caused Quinn Pensky to despair; but this time, Dustin wpuld make sure that there would be no way out for Quinn. Stevie spend a lot of energy in studying the scientific weaknesses of Quinn pensky, and she noticed more and more how Quinn had been driven into careless demeanour, culminating in her perverse and corrypt relationship with Logan Reese.

* * *

><p><strong><span>9:5 Quinn, Zoë, and Dolores Are Isolated<span>**

Vincent Blake and Dolores Martinez hd achieved their goal of making Chase pay for his betrayal, but were they now happy about this?

Well, at least Dolores had to feel almost immediately that her move had been a bad one. For Zoë Brooks, now no longer in possession of Chase Matthews, hated Dolores for having persuaded her into forgiving Vincent Blake's violent assault upon the life of Chase. Of course, Zoë hated herself even more for her mistake, but she would not admit to that.

Whatever the consequenbce, those girls would stop conversating for the rest of their school life—and even far beyond. For Dolores, this meant that all the advanteages she had expected from her falsely so-called friendship with the aspiring fashion designer and spokesperson of the school's girls had now become—all of a sudden—void. Also, her relationship with Vincent Blake, revealed in the (almost violent) disputes between Dolores and her dormitory comrades as nothing but a new kind of Podemkin's villages, and now the two of them had turned mutually hostile as well. Clearly, Dolores Martinez would go and try to build up a new social network in order to promote her own career; as a first step thereunto, she picked up modelling once more for Mad Style; which explains her appearance in _True Jackson VP_'s episode _True Crush_—using the pseudonym of **Vivian**. More precisely, Dolores did not only want to improve her popularity in the big cities of the Atlantic coast, but also become an obstacle to Zoë's career by flattering the latter's—according to Dolores' guess—biggest potential competitor, videlicet True Jackson. This way, Zoë's way to the big fashion business of New York City would—or so hoped the Latino drama queen—be blocked forever. In order to solidify her impact on Mad Style, Dolores would seduce **James Madigan**, the nephiew of the label's owner—although this would not last for long, as known to the avid watchers of _True Jackson VP_. Like Ahaverus, Dolores would have to wander from one potential entrance point into a world of ultimnate fame and glory to the other—without ever finding any sort of peace.

Witnessing the arguments between Dolores and Zoë, Quinn initially decided to take Zoë's side by insisting in having been persuaded (just like Zoë) into backstabbing Chase Matthews. But, in a last effort, Dolores reported that Quinn had hitherto always worked readily together with the aspiring Hollywood starlet—especially in their common efforts to get Zoë to see Chase's so-called feelings; this included especially several attempts of making Miss Brooks jealous, using Patricia Kirby and (especially) Trinidad Vega, the woman who had almost blackmailed Zoë into giving up on Chase.

Little wonder. Zoë Brooks was now even more upset; and, althopugh she had believed that—by distancing herself explicitly from Dolores—she would be able to regain—sooner or later—Chase's confidence, she was now no longer willing to try to run such a campaign. She knew—finally—that everyone had only played tricks on her durinmg the last half of a decade, and that she had been used by her so-called friends for whatever reason. She even understood that she had neglected Dustin all the time—just in order to help false friends who would never have done anything for her. Now she was watching her little brother spending a lot of time with Stevie Baskara, as the two of them were really understanding each other;this was—and so concluded Zoë—totally different from the series of abuse she had gone through during her last years.

Quinn Pensky was now equally isolated, for neither Dolores nor Zoë would trust her any further; also, she was not willing to beg Chase to forgive her previous treason, for she remembered that Chase had always (just like Dolores, Zoë, Logan,and Michael) made fun of her scientific dedication. She still needed Logan in order to finance her scientific career, now that she was in a crisis. This is what she had now finally come to acknowledge as a curse burdening her life since her decision to quest for the ultimate world dominatiuon by means of intelligence and scientific skills.

Quinn's situation was now about turning worse, because she was watching a video-clip sent on science channel; therein, **Mr. Jamerson**, a science teacher known from _True Jackson VP_'s episode _True's New Assistant_ praised the discoveries made by Dustin Brooks and Stevie Baskara (who would thereupoon be awarded as winners of the National Science Fair). During the presentation, Jamerson's comments referred explicitely to Quinn Pensky's faulty inventions, and how the two middle school kids had been able to patch them in so little time. As a consequence, irreparably humiliated Quinn Pensky did what she had already been quite close to doing a few times, especially once during the visit of Paige Howard; in other words, she abandoned all her hopes of ever becoming areal scientist, and she would start working as a casher for **Wanko's** (a mall featured in _Victorious_'s episode _Wanko's Warehouse_)—just as anticipated during a depressive phase in _Zoey's Tutor_.

Stevie's and Dustin's success meant that Qualitech would—although thoroughly embarrassed—now be able to market once more the sandalphon; consequently, the shooting would soon be continued.

* * *

><p><strong><span>9:6 Everyone Stands On His Own<span>**

Chase had already given up on his treacherous dormitory comrades, whereupon he had moved in with Mark Del Figgalo and Wayne Gilbert.

But also Logan and Michael had started almost killing each other—for more than obvious reasons. Michael especially accused Logan—correctly, but not unhypocritically—of having destroyed Chase's and Michael's friendship that everyone on the campus, from their very first common year, had believed to be for good (and not just until graduation). Logan did not do anything in order to appease Michael, and he just accudsed Chase of having always been nothing but a bad loser; he admitted that he had always looked down on Michael because of his provenience, and that he would never have even pretended to be their friend, had their not been his father's expectations.

So this is the point where a former group of students—whose friendship has been praised unduly and inappropriately by Dan Schneider's canon—was finally frragmented into its microscopic smithereens. This was not just a big loss for the individual members of that group, but it was also a catastrophe for life on the campus as such.

Not only their fellow students, but also the teachers and administration of the school had praised this group as an example for friendship of pupils on the campus, an example to offer for npotential new students and their teachers. The sponsors had already thought about using this group in order to promote the school more efficiently to the public. Adolf Bradford, who had secretly admired the group of students for their apparent—albeit thoroughly fake—friendship was most disappointed, and he would not forget that the end of the group appeared to have occurred exactly when Qualitech and Dale Squires had started making those commercials. As a consequence, the school's business model had all of a sudden turned questionable, although neither Rivers nor Bradford would admit to this. The latter, at least, remembered that he had already once stated that he was subject to a curse, and now he was once more assured that this was indeed the case; but he reacted by accusing the sponsors and the administration of having made severe mistakes during the last months, just in order to avoid appearing mad due to the curse.

* * *

><p><strong><span>9:7 Takato's Report<span>**

Although there were still no official statements about the crisis the school had already started slipping into, Heather Fox felt unambiguously that it was so, and she understood also that her demeanour during the last four years had contributed to it; but she knew equally that the school had appeared under a curse for ages already. Although she did not really pity the students whose—even in her eyes—false friendship she had helped destroying, she knew that this situation was as one of extreme corruption and decadence. But even more she knew that her destiny and that of Pacific Coast Academy had been coupled long before she had ever heard about that school; likewise, the uncanny connection would be certainly continued even for a long time after her departure from the campus.

She admitted honestly unto herself that the career of a model was not suited for herself—with or without the support of even Satan in person; finally,m she decided to skip the taping altogether, not minding the huge financial losses.

Walking the streets of Hollywood in a state of nausea and reduced attention span, Heather's head hit a tree; a few moments later, she woke up from a temporary unconsciousness and saw the face of Takato. She had never seen him before, but both Michael's description and her unnatural senses convinced her immediately of the stranger's identity.

Takato started stating what he knew about Heather's situation—as summarised in this and the previous chapters; this knowledge was neither surprising nor confusing for Heather, because she was accustomed to this kind of mysterious demeanour since Nina Martin's previously described nightly visit. Takato grinned and explained how he had been waiting for this moment, which probably had to come sooner or later; first, he confirmed that he was a witness of the history of Pacific Coast Academy, starting with the time of Charles R. Galloway—which coincided with the time when Adolf Bradford was still a student. Heather was not surprised by learning that Adolf had been very important due to the fact that hehad been the heir of the founder, Napoléon Bradford. Another important student had been **Calderon Reese**, one of the grandfathers of Logan; this student, as per _Zoey's Tutor_, had later become a college teacher for chemistry at **California Institute For Technology**, the university that was on the top of Quinn's list (or had been there until her withdrawal from science); he had been known among his fellow people for having a large plumb pot in his dormitory room, filled with all sorts of liquids whose behaviour he had studied. One day, at the end of a series of experiments with side effects very much comparable to those known to the reader from Quinn's scientific activities,Calderon Reese had composed some new and useful liquid; naturally, he was interested in marketing the the substance and protect his invention by means of claiming a patent; understandably, this venture had not been cheap, whence Calderon had to beg Adolf for quite a lot of money.

Power-hungry Adolf had—of course—not been willing to grant such a huge donation on site (he would have had to trick his father into consenting or into not noticing the expenses) without any kind of favour in turn. There had been very tough negotiations, and not even Takato knew all of the details, but what he was able to remember was enough in order to understand the implications. Adolf had always been up to villainous world domination, and he had known that Calderon's inventions had been useful for his nefarious plans. Their deal had bean sealed by means of a dark ritual, whose meaning they had not understood in any way—just as Heather's situation sice her first meeting with Kreuftlva alias Wilma Basset in the hideout at Waverly Place, Manhattan. In order to keep the secret, they had founded a club of guardians consisting of the most illustrious students.

The huge sculpture of Napoléon Bradford, which the reader remembers from _Prank Week_, had not yet been established during the founder's life time; rather, only after the war of Vietnam had Adolf ordered the erection of the monument, with plans that had already been made by Adolf and Calderon during their life as students of Pacific Coast Academy. The sculpture held part of the key to the secret of Calderon's invention. Takato had become a middle school teacher of Pacific Coast Academy just in order to see what had become of the plans of the two power mad conspirators after Napoléon's death.

The successor of the club of guardians had come to be known, by the end of the war in Vietnam, as **Society Of The Silver Hammer**, known from the episode _Silver Hammers_. The society was, not for naught, similar to that of **Freemasonry**, but with a less noble goal: Securing the future world domination by the families of Reese and Bradford, to be effected by Calderon's invention.

The most important trait of the dark pact between Calderon Reese and Adolf Bradford was, however, the fact that it was binding for generations; each of the families had been supposed to contribute to the plan, either as a scientist or as a politician. However, the families kept on coexisting with a distinct lack of mutual trust.

**Victor Jekyl Bradford**, the scientifically gifted son of Adolf known (known, albeit by family name only, from _Supah Ninjas_'s episode _Mr. Bradford_) , was nowadays a teacher for science at a high-school in Manhattan; following the dark pact, he would have been in charge with improving upon Calderon's secret invention; alas, he never made it again to California, because this was the only way to keep his part in the diabolic plan a secret. As a consequence, there had not been any decent teacher for science on the campus of Pacific Coast Academy since the death of Naopléon Bradford—all canditates had been forced to work outside.

After Victor J. Bradford, the family of Calderon Reese had been supposed to provide the needed improvements of the secret invention of the latter; but, as much as Calderon had tried,m there seemed to be no way to get Logan interested in science. The dandy of Pacific Coast Academy had learned a lot from his grandfather by heart, but he ridiiculed and deprecated proper scientific research; in order to accomplish the needs of the diabolic plan, Logan was thus supposed to marry a suitable woman into his family. Diabolic providence had thus opened—automagically—the gates of the school in order to let the one and only woman in that was able to continue this tradition as Logan's future wife: Quinn Pensky, who had—without knowing it—begged for it by wishing for intellectual world domination, just as Calderon Reese had done two generations ago.

Takato had come to understand this and returned, invited officially by his kinsman **Kazu**, known to most viewers of _Zoey 101_ as the owner of a sushi pub omn the campus of Pacific Coast Acadcemy, to California towards the end of Logan's and Quinn's junior prom in order to attempt—desperately—to stop this unholy and downright obnoxious relationship. Alas, his words had just fallen like silent dew drops due to the degenerate minds of most of the students.

If Quinn's techfoots had been succeeded, the plans of Calderon and Adolf would have been accomplished as soon as possible, resulting in an oppressive world domination of the clans of Reese and Bradford lasting for many a generation—due to the public endorsement provided—as predestined—by Heather Fox; but Stevie Baskara and Dustin Brooks, who were not as easy to corrupt and to compromise as the high-school students, had been faster, leading to a relenting of the efforts necessary for accomplishing the goals of the diabolic contract.

Charles R. Galloway had been the first student to dare to oppose to the plans of Adolf Bradford and Calderon Reese, attempting to stop them before they had taken off the ground; but he had to pay dearly for his courage, as inferrable from _The Curse Of PCA_.

Kazu, by the way, as the husband of aforementioned Mrs. Lee, and he depended completely on her financial support—besides exploiting students as cheap employees and deceived customers—in order to maintain his sushi bar. This implies already that the money raising action of the episode _People Auction_ had been but bogus; for, after all, the local administration had, after the inferno on the campus, established a law for an obligatory fire insurance. A little bar like Kazu's, serving school children, was of course unable to afford the fees for the insurance. In addition, the amount of money mentioned by Schneider was much too low for rebuilding a destroyed bar within a few weeks, as the wary viewer of _Zoey 101_ has probably noticed already. Clearly, the business practices enforced by Mrs. Lee were no less abominable than those of Adolf Bradford; whence Takato was really sad, but powerless—yet another vicious curse.

* * *

><p><strong><span>9:8 Heather Visits Covington<span>**

Unfortunately, Heather was still not at the end of her path of recovering from the dismal she had loaded upon herself by picking up a path she had not been prepared to enter in the first place; but she felt that she had to follow the hints offered by a senselessly stammering Chase Matthews about a connection between the foundation of Pacific Coast Academy and Covington. In order to verify the connections, Heather gathered the last money from her—now abandoned—career as a star model in order to travel to England and visit the House Of Anubis.

Working together with some of the interested and more sensitive students, she discovered that Napoléon Bradford had been a student at Covington's before founding Pacific Coast Academy and siring Adolf Bradford. Heather had picked up from Quinn Pensky the elements of cryptography that were necessary in order to decode the secrets hidden in the annals of the dormitory hall with connections to the world of ancient Egypt. Napoléon Bradford had, as a high-school student, researched the secrets of obtaining eternal powers on this world.

Heather had also studied ancient Greek and Latin, enabling her to study the works of intelligent Europeans who had formally described their observations and musings about classic Egypt. The most important source for her quest were the works of **Plutarch**, a Greek intellectual serving emperors **Trajan** and **Hadrian** as an imperial scribe; this masterpiece of European intelligence had described, among so many others, the cult of Isis. Ultimately, she and the students assisting her became convinced that only the blessings made by a pure priestess of Isis would allow for her redemption from her path. Unfortunately, this priestess was no other than Leanne Carter, whom she had, as previously described, once pushed (albeit not directly) down the great staircase in the halls of Broadway Academy. How—so Heather had to wonder—would Leanne ever be willing to help her free herself from her uncanny bonds?

* * *

><p><strong><span>9:9 Leanne Carter Pardons Heather<span>**

For weeks, Heather had tortured herself into thinking about a way to beg Leanne for pardon. It had not been too hard to find out about the whereabouts of the most virtuous of all young women of the United States Of America, as the Isis Fellowship had got members both in Los Angeles and in London.

Surprisingly, Leanne had already expected Heather, although the latter had not announced herself, and she pardoned the former top-model because the latter had not known what she had been doing.

Now Heather was able to reverse her corrupt destiny and see her true star of the morning rise in the east, instead of seeing it sink in the west—what she had done for years—; this way, she felt her heart pacified.

Grateful for her redemption from the situation into which Heather had slipped since her nightly encounter with Nina Martin, Heather did the one and only right thing and joined the ult of Isis as a neophyte adept. By means of the supreme virtues of celibacy and vegetarianism would she be able to reach a true understanding of the secrets of the pentagram and other magical symbols she had been attracted to for several years already. This would enable her to serve desperate seekers like Chase Matthews, who would always be welcome as a visitor, as a mediator and gateway into the dimension of his deceased grandmother. As a result, Chase knew finally that his grandmother had not got any ambitions of returning to a life on earth, and never had had; and also that he and his grandmother would—one day—be reunited in the world where they all had come from, and where they would melt into one.

* * *

><p><strong><span>9:10 Epilogue<span>**

So, by returning to the paths of virtue, Heather Fox had finally been able to redeem herself.

But what would become of the Pacific Coast Academy and its students? Basically, only if enough of them followed the way that had finally been adopted by Heather Fox, there would be a chance for overcoming the malicious curse imposed by the old bonds between Adolf Bradford and Calderon Reese, the ultimate proponents of the shallow morality of capitalism, imperialism, and theocracy.

Whether, how, and when this would happen? Answering this question is left—as an exercise—to the imagination of our dear gentle readers.

_**The End**_


End file.
